Judge sets Jan. 28 for 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic resentencing

OKLAHOMA CITY – A national justice successful Oklahoma connected Monday acceptable a Jan. 28 day for the resentencing of “Tiger King” Joe Exotic.

U.S. District Judge Scott Palk acceptable the resentencing for 10 a.m. and granted the defendant's petition to beryllium transported to Oklahoma City for the hearing.

A federal appeals tribunal successful July ruled that Joe Exotic, whose existent sanction is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, should get a shorter sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit successful Denver determined the proceedings tribunal wrongly treated 2 murder-for-hire convictions separately successful calculating his situation term.

Maldonado-Passage was sentenced successful January 2020 to 22 years successful prison. But the appeals tribunal said the tribunal should person calculated his advisory sentencing scope betwixt 17 1/2 years and conscionable nether 22 years successful prison, alternatively than betwixt conscionable nether 22 years and 27 years successful prison.

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Maldonado-Passage, who maintains his innocence, besides was sentenced for sidesplitting 5 tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.

Last month, attorneys for the erstwhile Oklahoma zookeeper said helium was delaying crab treatment until aft his resentencing. Maldonado-Passage announced successful November that helium has prostate cancer, and helium was transferred from a national aesculapian halfway successful Fort Worth, Texas, to a national aesculapian halfway successful Butner, North Carolina.

In a abstracted action, a mates who succeeded Maldonado-Passage successful operating the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park and Tiger King Park agreed to surrender their rights to 97 animals of endangered oregon threatened taxon and 47 different animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act.

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Jeffrey and Lauren Lowe, who are erstwhile friends of Maldonado-Passage, besides agreed successful a Dec. 23 consent decree filed successful national tribunal successful Muskogee, Oklahoma, to ne'er again grounds animals.

Federal agents seized the 97 endangered animals, including 68 large cats and a jaguar, from Tiger King Park successful Thackerville, Oklahoma, successful 2 seizures past May and August. Federal officials accused the Lowes of harming and harassing the animals.

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