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Gorilla Case Prosecutor: Mother Would’ve Been Charged If She Was ‘Smoking Crack’

Steve Guest Media Reporter
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Joseph Deters — the Hamilton County, Ohio prosecutor overseeing the possible child endangerment case of the three-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla enclosure — announced on Monday that the mother of the child will not face charges because she was not “in the bathroom smoking crack.”

During a press conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, Deters said, “The zoo lost a beautiful animal, and one that many people in this area have enjoyed watching for a long time but it’s still an animal. It does not equate human life.” (RELATED: Obama Admin Calls Killing Of The Cincinnati Zoo Gorilla A ‘Tragedy’)

The zoo “felt that this boy’s life was in jeopardy,” Deters explained. “They made the painful choice to do what they did.”

“In terms of the mother… had she been, for instance… in the bathroom smoking crack and let her kids run around in the zoo, that would be a different story,” Deters said. “But that’s not what was happening here. She is being attentive to her children by all witness accounts, and the three-year-old just scampered off.”

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Steve Guest