DxE investigator and animal rescuer Zoe Rosenberg is on trial in Sonoma County, California. She is facing years in jail for rescuing four sick and injured chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse. All media requests to record the trial have been denied, but you can follow along through these Court Watch summaries, on our Perdue Rescue Trial X account, on our Instagram, and on UnchainedTV. Check back regularly for new updates. Want to take action? Sign the petition at RightToRescue.com and share the news with your friends and family.

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Monday, September 22nd

Today’s court proceedings consisted of two ‘402 hearings’ which will shape which witnesses are allowed to testify, in what capacity, and on what topics. 

First up was Carla Cabral. Carla is the lead of DxE’s animal care working group, as well as an experienced animal caretaker who has worked at multiple sanctuaries and was a formally trained veterinary technician. She provided care for the four birds Zoe rescued for about one month after they were rescued. Zoe’s lawyers attempted to qualify Carla as an expert in animal caretaking. Carla testified about her education and experience, as well as her overall opinion that the rescued birds were unwell. The prosecution attempted to discredit Carla’s experience while also alluding to possibly reporting her for practicing veterinary medicine without a license, but Judge Gnoss ruled that she would indeed be qualified as an expert witness in animal caretaking. Judge Gnoss also indicated that it is becoming very clear that the condition of the birds is a significant issue in this case.

Second was Raven Deerbrook, an animal investigator who specializes in investigating slaughterhouses. She entered Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse several times between April and June 2023, at least once with Zoe. Raven took photos of documents that she found inside the slaughterhouse, including USDA condemnation certificates. She testified that all exhibits were true and accurate copies of photographs she had taken. The prosecution questioned Raven aggressively about how she entered the slaughterhouse without permission “under cover of night,” and how she did not know who completed the records or what method was used to complete them. The prosecutor was attempting to show that the information contained in the records might not be true. Judge Gnoss indicated that he would not make a ruling this afternoon and would instead issue a ruling tomorrow afternoon, when the parties return to resume with another batch of prospective jurors. 

Tuesday, September 23rd

Court today started with another round of ~90 prospective jurors coming in. The process was exactly the same as last week’s and, once again, over half the jurors were dismissed for hardship reasons. Those who were not excused for hardship have filled out a questionnaire and are ordered to return on Monday at 1:30pm. 

Once the jurors were excused, discussion turned back to the photographs of records taken by Raven Deerbook and whether they will be admitted. Judge Gnoss has not yet ruled on this. Chris Carraway, Zoe’s attorney, informed the judge that he had interviewed Bradley Schrader, the Quality Assurance Manager for Perdue and a witness for the prosecution, earlier that day, and that Schrader’s answers strongly bolstered Deerbrook’s testimony (Schrader stated the records looked authentic and were from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse). 

Judge Gnoss ordered a 402 hearing for Schrader on Thursday at 11:00am. Judge Gnoss also stated that his preliminary thought is that he is not going to qualify Raven as an expert in criminal investigations, and that it is going to be an uphill battle for her to lay the foundation on the records. This is not great for us, but we are hoping that Schrader’s 402 hearing will allow us to authenticate the records and enable them to be introduced.

Wednesday, September 24th

Judge Gnoss does not hold trial court on Wednesdays so we're off today.

Thursday, September 25th

Court was supposed to begin today with Bradley Schrader’s 402 hearing, but due to delays it got pushed back to late afternoon. A fourth panel of ~100 jurors came in at 1:30pm and by 3:45pm, more than half of them were excused for hardships. We’ve now gone through four rounds of this initial step of jury selection and all the jurors from all four pools who have not been excused will be returning on Monday for the next phase. 

Bradley Schrader, the Quality Assurance Manager for Perdue who worked at Petaluma Poultry from 2017-2024, took the stand virtually via Zoom. We requested this hearing to provide additional authentication for the records that Deerbrook photographed inside the slaughterhouse. The prosecution is objecting to these records being submitted as evidence. 

Chris Carraway began the questioning and Schrader stated that the records Deerbrook photographed look similar to other records from Petaluma Poultry, and do in fact have the Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse plant code on them and the name of the USDA vet who was working at the slaughterhouse at the time. Carraway then asked Schrader if he had any reason to believe the records would be fake and Schrader said he couldn’t say one way or another, despite the fact that he had told Carraway two days earlier in an interview that he had no reason to think they were fake. Carraway pressured him on this point and he admitted that his testimony had changed and that he did talk to a Perdue attorney before this testimony today. There were several times during Carraway’s questioning where Schrader’s answer was different or more vague than it was two days ago! 

Hobson also questioned Schrader about how it was not his job to fill out the records, how he didn’t watch them being filled out, how he doesn’t know who filled them out, and how he couldn’t say for sure if they were complete and accurate. 

Carraway did one more round of questioning in which Schrader stated he likely could look the records up himself as a way to authenticate them, but he has not done so. With that, Schrader was excused and court was over for the day.

Friday, September 26th

The courthouse is closed for Native American Day. We'll be back on Monday.

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