No Charges in Chimp Attack, Civil Suit Pending

Dec. 8, 2009— -- Sandy Herold, the owner of a 200-pound chimpanzee that viciously mauled her friend Charla Nash "welcomed" the state's decision not to criminally charge her in relation to the attack, her lawyer told ABC News.

"The State did not perceive Travis [the chimpanzee] to be a public health risk prior to this incident occurring," Herold's attorney Robert Golger said in a statement. "His attack on Charla Nash was not foreseeable to Sandy."

Though an attorney for the Nash family said the family "understands" the state's decision, they have filed a $50 million civil lawsuit against Herold and want to sue the state for $150 million.

Connecticut State attorney David Cohen called the attack that left Nash blind and grotesquely disfigured a "horror" and said the facts were "uncontroverted."

But he declined to press charges against Herold, saying Herold had not acted recklessly when she asked Nash to help cage Travis because the animal had never previously attacked anyone.

"The investigation has not discovered any evidence that Mrs. Herold was aware of the risk that the chimpanzee posed and disregarded it. The animal had not previously exhibited violent behavior, especially toward the victim, Ms. Nash, with whom he interacted regularly, and who was present that day specifically because it was thought that she could help in controlling the chimpanzee," Cohen said in a statement.

Click here to see Charla Nash's uncovered face.

"Additionally, there is no record of the State Department of Environmental Protection warning Mrs. Herold in any way that the animal could be dangerous and pose a threat to people," he said.

Cohen said investigators who conducted a necropsy found no signs of illness, but did find trace elements of the anti-anxiety medication Xanax. At the time of the attack Herold said she gave the ape some of the pills in a teacup, but later withdrew that comment.

The chimpanzee attacked Nash in February when Herold asked her friend and an employee in her home-based towing company to help lure the animal back into its room-sized cage.

Herold kept the ape in her home and regularly ate meals with the animal seated at her dining table.