Man brings donkey to testify in court




DALLAS (AP) — Faced with complaints that his donkey was too loud, attorney Gregory Shamoun decided to bring his case directly to the court: He had the donkey testify.
Buddy the donkey appeared in court Wednesday. He walked to the bench and stared at the jury, the picture of a gentle, well-mannered creature and not the loud, aggressive animal he had been accused of being.

Shamoun was in a dispute with oilman John Cantrell, who had complained to the city about a storage shed Shamoun was building in his backyard in Dallas. Cantrell said Shamoun retaliated by bringing the donkey from his ranch and putting him in the backyard.

Cantrell complained of donkey noise and manure piles.

"They bray a lot any time day or night. You never know when they're going to cut loose," he testified.


Despite the donkey's appearance, neither jurors or Buddy had the last say — the neighbors settled their dispute while jurors deliberated.

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Posted 5h 20m ago



Buddy, the donkey, is led by Ranch Operator Etienne Grimmett and owner Gregory Shamoun into the Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 courtroom.

Cute donkey!

Sod the neighbours.

awwww he's cute!

Those little donkeys are so cute. I knew someone who had one. Friendly, but not to the flowers.

I want one!

I was expecting see Shrek and Fiona, as well.

and ppl ask y Americans are seen as stupid?

live4lust said:

I bet he can make waffles

tznekbsbfrvr said:

It's not so much the donkey as the bandana around it's neck

evenstar3 said:

For a second, I wondered why they'd brought you into court when the title said "Donkey"

Spookymuffin said:

Is a donkey even qualified to be a witness? One could interpret Evidence Rule 601 to mean that only humans are competent to testify. ("Every person is competent to be a witness except as otherwise provided in these rules.")

No, seriously, I think it's rather clever to present the donkey as an exhibit. If I were the judge, though, I might be inclined to reject the donkey itself and instead allow an audio recording or other substitute evidence of the noise.

One time I helped prepare a case for trial where a defective furnace had killed a person (carbon monoxide poisoning) who was house sitting while the owners were away. I was asked to draft a subpoena ordering the other side to drag the furnance out of storage -- probably from a warehouse in Illinois -- and bring it to court on the first day. I didn't actually participate in the trial, but something tells me that subpoena got quashed.

[Edited 4/20/07 12:11pm]