HARTFORD, Conn. — A woman blinded and disfigured in a 2009 chimpanzee attack said Wednesday she is “heartbroken” that Connecticut lawmakers recommended she not be allowed to sue the state for financial damages, adding that she had hoped to tell her side of the story in a courtroom.
Charla Nash claimed state officials knew the 200-pound chimp could be dangerous and was being kept without a permit before it went on a violent rampage that cost Nash her nose, lips, eyelids and hands before it was shot to death by a police officer.
“This process isn’t fair,” Nash said in a written statement. “I wanted a chance to be able to pay my medical bills and get assistance I need to live as normal of a life as possible.”
While not specific about her possible legal options, Nash said she’s not giving up hoping, saying, “this means too much to my daughter Briana and me.”
The legislature’s Judiciary Committee voted 35-3 in favor of upholding last year’s decision by State Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr., who refused Nash’s request for permission to sue the state of Connecticut.
The General Assembly has the option of approving Nash’s suit but that’s considered unlikely. The bill now goes to the House.
Vance and state Attorney General George Jepsen maintain the state did not have a duty to protect Nash, who was attacked on private property in Stamford. Nash had come to help her friend and employer Sandra Herold lure the woman’s pet chimp, named Travis, back inside, but the animal went berserk.
In his decision last year, Vance said: “There was no statute that prohibited the private ownership of the chimpanzee” at the time Nash was attacked, “nor was there any statutory language that would have created a duty to Ms. Nash.”
He added, “If there was a failure by the DEP to seize the animal … the duty owed was to the general public and does not create a statutory obligation to ensure the safety of a private individual such as (Nash).”
Months before the attack, a state biologist warned state officials in a memo that the chimpanzee could seriously hurt someone if it felt threatened, saying “it is an accident waiting to happen.” State lawmakers did approve a ban on chimpanzees and other animals deemed dangerous a few months after Nash was mauled.
Nash originally sought $150 million from the state, but her lawyers later said she would accept significantly less.
Nash has undergone a face transplant and is living in a Massachusetts convalescent home, awaiting a hand transplant.
She reached a $4 million settlement in 2012 with the estate of Herold, who died in 2010.
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