BEAUMONT — BEAUMONT — It was a monkey trial of sorts. Not like the Scopes Monkey Trial — there were actual monkeys in the court.

Keko, a black-cap capuchin monkey and the focus of the hearing, was seated in a cage with her friend Daisy, a white-face capuchin who was along for moral support.

Debbie Berg of Nederland was the subject of a motion for discovery. A woman in Mississippi, Sharon Campell, lost her capuchin monkey through seizure because she had stopped making payments, said Justin Sanderson, Berg’s attorney (capuchins cost more than $5,000). Campell filed suit because she thinks Keko is the same monkey she lost.

Though Berg bought Keko from the same man who sold Campell her monkey, Sanderson said, he has veterinarian records that show that Berg had Keko before Campell’s monkey was seized. He was in court to ask for a protective order.

“It’s a case of mistaken monkey,” Sanderson said smiling.

There were smiles all around before the hearing. A room where Berg and the monkeys were waiting was filled with reporters, photographers and various courthouse staff members coming to get a look at the subject of this unusual case. Oohs and ahhs were interspersed with puns writers were trying out. Everone seemed to be smiling, even Berg.

The matter to be decided, though, was a serious one.

Berg said she’s had Keko and Daisy for years and that they are very dear to her. She said they require constant attention, the way small children do, and that their 30-40 year lifespan means that owning one “is a definite lifetime commitment.”

Uprooting Keko and moving her to another home would be extremely traumatic for the monkey, she said.

“If you imagine taking a 6-year-old child and putting her into a home she doesn’t know, it’s the same scenario.”

The stakes are similar for Berg, Sanderson said, “She would react the same way a parent would if she lost a child.”

“Ms. Berg’s real nervous about today,” he said.

When court was brought to order, the plaintiff, Campell, had not arrived, though the judge had given her 15 minutes past the scheduled time of the hearing. And because she was representing herself, there was no attorney there in her behalf.

Judge Tom Rugg said that if Campell had appeared, he would have strongly advised her to hire a Texas lawyer to represent her.

That being said, he granted the protective order, and for now, Keko will stay with Berg.

Sanderson said he plans to request that the lawsuit be dismissed and he feels confident that it will be.

Berg said she is relieved by the outcome.

“I don’t feel it’s totally over yet, but I feel very confident that I have the proof that Keko is my monkey and not her monkey.”

Asked if he thought people would say he’d turned his courtroom into a circus, Rugg laughed and said that because they are domesticated animals, and properly restrained, he felt it would not be disruptive. He said that the animals’ presence served an important purpose:

“Had the plantiff been here, she may have looked at these critters and said, ‘Those aren’t my monkeys,’ and it could have ended the controversy there,” he said.