HUNTINGTON BEACH : Hawk’s Nest Case Ends in Hung Jury

The case of the missing hawk’s nest has resulted in a hung jury.

Prosecutors said Friday that they will wait until there is another pretrial conference Thursday before deciding whether to seek a second trial in the unusual case. The West Orange County Municipal Court jury that heard the five-day trial was dismissed Friday after announcing that it was hopelessly deadlocked 6 to 6.

At issue are charges against two Newport Beach developers, David Dahl and Jeff Smith, who were accused of allowing trimmers to chop down a Huntington Beach tree limb holding the nest of a red-tailed hawk, an endangered species, on March 7. The nest was never seen again, according to court testimony.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Scoville said that even though the nest itself could not be produced as direct evidence, photographs of the tree prove that an active hawk’s nest once existed there.

But John R. Cogorno, attorney for Dahl and Smith, argued that Scoville never proved that a hawk’s nest was actually destroyed.

Cogorno devoted much of his closing argument to criticizing Huntington Beach resident Debbie Cook, who was a key prosecution witness. Cook, a founder of Save Our Parks and a member of other environmental groups, had taken photographs of the hawk’s nest before it disappeared. She alerted authorities after tree limbs were cut by workers Dahl and Smith had hired.

The tree in question is in an area of northwest Huntington Beach in which Dahl and Smith plan to build housing. Cook testified that she witnessed the cutting down of the hawk’s nest on March 7.

But Cogorno, in his closing argument to the jury, said Cook “was a bit fanatical about the trees and this hawk. She was obviously hysterical when she came to the scene” of the tree cutting.

Scoville countered that Dahl and Smith had not warned the tree-trimmers to be careful of what was a known hawk’s nest in the area.

The prosecution is not “saying the defendants are bad people,” Scoville told the jury, but, he said, the developers nonetheless violated a state law prohibiting destruction of nests of rare birds such as the red-tailed hawk.

“They just went ahead and cut, and part of that destruction was the hawk’s nest,” Scoville said.

Cook said Friday that she believes that the case is important and deserves to be prosecuted.

“Who speaks for the wildlife if we do not?” she said.