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[Benjamin Bayliss <ctrkgrendel AT yahoo.com>]

Settlement looming for Primarily Primates

Web Posted: 04/25/2007 10:30 PM CDT

Cindy Tumiel
Express-News

The Texas Attorney General wants to settle litigation over San Antonio's Primarily Primates sanctuary by returning the facility to a reformed board of directors and permanently removing the man who founded the refuge for abandoned and unwanted animals nearly three decades ago.

The settlement would end complex litigation that began last October, when a court took control of the sanctuary after the attorney general charged that thousands of dollars in donations were being misspent while animals lived in substandard conditions at the Leon Springs sanctuary Wallace Swett founded 28 years ago.

Travis County Probate Court Judge Guy Herman has a hearing scheduled for Friday on the settlement. If he accepts it, a court-appointed receiver who has run the facility for the past six months will be required to vacate the sanctuary by Friday afternoon. The proposal drew sharp rebuke from Skip Trimble, a Dallas attorney representing the receiver, Lee Theisen-Watt. He called the settlement "a total and complete betrayal" of the animals and the people who have supported the facility since the state seizure.

"It is a tragic day for a lot of people, more importantly, the animals," Trimble said on Wednesday.

Attorney general spokesman Tom Kelly declined comment. "We would withhold any comment until we know we have a viable agreement and it's being accepted by the judge," he said.

The reformed Primarily Primates board will include Eric Turton, a San Antonio attorney who has represented the sanctuary during the litigation, and Priscilla Feral of Friends of Animals, which raised money to help Primarily Primates fight the state seizure.

Swett, who still lives in a house on the sanctuary property, would be banned from serving on the sanctuary board or serving as an employee. He would have to vacate the house within 120 days.

"Where am I going to go?" Swett said. "This is a paradise here. There is no other place I could survive."

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ctumiel AT express-news.net

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