Current weather:  37° F   cloudy

sponsored by:

Three charged with smuggling rhesus monkey

Bill Morlin
Staff writer
March 8, 2008

Gypsy Lawson, with her dog Albert, stands on her north Spokane porch Friday, March. 7, 2008. Lawson has been indicted for smuggling a pet monkey into the United States from Asia, but she claims that she returned to the United States from her Asia trip and bought the monkey, a rhesus macaque, in California. Albert and the baby monkey used to sleep together before the monkey was taken away. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review) Documents: Indictment for smuggling Search warrant for Lawson's house | for Ogren's house

A second exotic monkey has been seized in Spokane, and this one may have been smuggled into the United States under a pregnant-looking woman’s blouse, authorities said Friday.

Three people were indicted in that federal wildlife smuggling case on Tuesday, five days after another monkey was captured after escaping its new home and biting three people on the South Hill.

Federal authorities confirmed Friday they are attempting to determine the origin of the first runaway monkey, a java macaque owned by Amy LeAnn Hensley, who’s awaiting sentencing in a diploma-mill conspiracy case. Federal laws may have been violated, depending on where her monkey came from and how long she had it.

In the second, unrelated case, Gypsy Lawson, 27, her boyfriend, James Edward Pratt, 33, both of Spokane, and her mother, Fran Ogren, 55, of Northport, Wash., are charged in a federal indictment returned Tuesday.

The three, scheduled to voluntarily appear in U.S. District Court on March 20, are charged with smuggling a young rhesus macaque monkey into the United States, and possession and transportation of prohibited wildlife in violation of the Lacey Act, U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt said Friday.

Accompanying court documents suggest the rhesus monkey may have come from Thailand. It may have been smuggled under the clothing of a woman who appeared pregnant, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The infant monkey was taken from Lawson when federal agents searched her home on Jan. 11, Lawson said during an interview Friday on her front porch.

“He was my baby and completely non-aggressive,’’ said Lawson, who named the monkey “Apoo,” which she says means “grandfather.”

“He liked to cuddle and sleep with Albert,” her 3-year-old Jack Russell-poodle mix, Lawson said. “They bonded immediately.”

When federal agents entered her home on East Nebraska with a search warrant, “they couldn’t even find the monkey," Lawson said. “I had to show them – he was sleeping with my dog in the crate.”

Lawson, who has lived in Spokane since graduating from Springdale High School, said she and her mother traveled to Thailand last fall, but Pratt didn’t make the trip.

“I was already in love with monkeys, but we went and studied elephants and monkeys in Thailand in October," Lawson said. She denied the federal charges accusing her of smuggling the monkey when she returned to the United States.

“I didn’t get it in Thailand," Lawson said. “I went through five countries, with security and everything. I never got the monkey in Thailand. There’s no way they can prove I smuggled a monkey.”

She dismissed a question about smuggling the monkey under her blouse, and said she bought Apoo for several hundred dollars from someone in southern California. She declined to provide specifics.

“He’s just a baby, and I don’t even know where they’re keeping him right now," Lawson said, petting her dog. Federal authorities said the monkey is at a U.S. Fish & Wildlife facility in California, but wouldn’t be more specific.

The smuggling investigation was begun after authorities received a telephone call on Dec. 27, tipping them that a monkey had been seen at two stores at the NorthPointe Plaza in north Spokane.

“Yeah, we took him out with us, he needed socialization,’’ Lawson said. “Our friend’s girlfriend used to work in one of the stores, and one of employees there said it was a smuggled monkey, just foaming at the mouth with disease. None of that is true."

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents contacted her and Pratt, they voluntarily went to the federal agency’s office in early January and answered some questions, court documents say.

The documents also say federal investigators have located at least one witness who says Ogren, Lawson’s mother, was bragging about smuggling the monkey and was talking about getting a second primate for breeding.

A week later, after the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife joined the investigation, agents served a search warrant at Lawson and Pratt’s home on East Nebraska and Ogren’s home near Northport.

Besides taking her monkey, agents “seized my camera, my cell phone, everything," Lawson said, expressing disbelief that federal authorities are “coming after me.”

She said she’s uncertain what will happen and is hoping “for some kind of help from the monkey community. My main goal – I just want him back.”

Bill Morlin can be reached at (509) 459-5444 or e-mail: billm@spokesman.com.

back to top