Retrial of ‘Zoo Man’ begins in Chattanooga

Huskey, 46, was convicted in 1996 of raping four women. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial in 2002 in the rape and kidnapping case involving a 25-year-old prostitute, ruling the case should not have been tried simultaneously with the three others.

Huskey is serving a 44-year sentence for raping three women.

The retrial of the fourth rape case was moved to Chattanooga by Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner due to extensive publicity in the Knoxville area.

Baumgartner said the trial could be completed within two days.

A gag order issued in the case prevents Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols and defense lawyer Herbert S. Moncier from commenting about the case.

Huskey is accused of killing four women in 1992 and leaving their bodies in a wooded section of eastern Knox County. A jury dealocked on those charges in 1999.

Huskey’s case, spanning more than a decade, is one of the most expensive prosecutions in state history at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He had worked at the Knoxville Zoo and allegedly carried out a series of rapes at the barn where he helped care for elephants. Huskey was nicknamed “Zoo Man” by prostitutes who said he took them there for sex.

———

Information from: Chattanooga Times Free Press, http://www.timesfreepress.com