A federal judge has thrown out an illegal search case against police officers who entered a New York City man's apartment without a warrant and removed his 450-pound Siberian tiger from the premises.

"The word chutzpah ... is now vastly overused in the legal literature," U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein said. "Yet in a case such as this ... it is a most appropriate term to use."

Police learned that Antoine Yates was raising the tiger in his fifth-floor Harlem residence after receiving an anonymous tip. Two days earlier, officers had found him near the fifth story elevators with a deep gash in his leg, but he told them he had been bitten by a pit bull.

During an Oct. 4, 2003 raid on Yates' apartment, an officer who had rappelled down the side of the building shot Ming the tiger through a window with a tranquilizer gun. An alligator named Al was also removed from the apartment.

Yates, who has admitted being mauled by Ming and was convicted of reckless endangerment, showed his chutzpah by suing the city on claims that the confiscation of his pets violated his Fourth Amendment rights.

Granting the city's motion for summary judgment, Judge Stein said the officers were immune from liability because their actions "easily comply with the established New York standard ... for when an emergency justifies entering a home without a warrant."

The opinion also addressed Yates' allegation that officers stole his pet dwarf rabbit:

The whereabouts of the rabbit have not been ascertained, but there is no indication in the record that Al the alligator was questioned in that regard. The Court suggests that he may be more knowledgeable on this issue than he has disgorged to date.

By Matthew Heller
8/8/06