Chimp owner's assets frozen

STAMFORD, Conn., April 13 (UPI) -- Authorities say a judge Monday extended a hold on Sandra Herold's assets in a lawsuit filed after the Connecticut's woman chimpanzee mauled a family friend.

Judge Edward R. Karazin Jr. also scheduled an April 27 hearing to discuss a motion to seal photos and medical records of Charla Nash, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported.

Nash's right to privacy overrides the public's right to see her injuries, her lawyers said in the Stamford Superior Court hearing, which Herold didn't attend.

Nash's family is suing Herold for $50 million for a Feb. 16 attack in which Nash lost her hands, lips, nose and eyelids when Herold's 14-year-old chimp, Travis, attacked her before police shot and killed him. Nash is brain-injured, permanently blind and requires numerous surgeries, said doctors at Ohio's Cleveland Clinic, where she is in critical but stable condition.

Herold's lawyers argue there was no way of knowing the 200-pound animal would attack, especially since Nash had interacted with the chimp many times previously without incident.