‘Chimp Crazy' star arrested in ongoing saga over treatment of movie-star chimp Tonka
Tonia Haddix, 55, looked puffy-eyed and had disheveled hair and makeup in a mug shot after she was arrested by US Marshals in Missouri on Saturday.
Haddix and her husband, Jerry Aswegan, are accused of failing to show at court — and also ducking more than $220,000 in legal fees accrued to dismiss a federal lawsuit filed by the animal rights group PETA, Fox2Now reported.
3 Tonia Haddix was arrested by US Marshals on Saturday afternoon after a Missouri judge accused her and her husband, Jerry Aswegan, of not paying over $220,000 in attorneys' fees and costs to PETA.
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2016, accused Haddix of mistreating primates in her care, including Tonka, a chimpanzee who appeared in movies, including the 1997 comedy 'Buddy.'
Haddix testified that Tonka had died and been cremated — later admitting that she lied, with the chimp among many found locked up in her basement in Lake of the Ozarks in June 2022, the feds previously said.
Haddix, 55, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for lying to a federal judge about Tonka's death.
3 The payout was to end a lawsuit over the discovery of Tonka, a chimpanzee who Haddix claimed had died but was actually locked up in her basement.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
PETA claims the pair has not participated in the agreed-upon six-figure payout, and court records filed by the St. Louis County Circuit Judge Brian May indicate the pair has failed to appear at multiple court hearings, the outlet reported.
'PETA spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to find Tonka, get him out of the cage in Tonia Haddix's basement, and move him to the spacious sanctuary where he's now thriving, and Haddix can't keep dodging the court's orders to pay back the money she owes,' PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement Brittany Peet wrote in a statement.
'PETA trusts this jail time will be just a taste of the longer sentence she'll face next month,' the group said.
Haddix — the subject of 'Chimp Crazy,' the HBO docuseries about her ownership of Tonka and other chimps used in films and photoshoots — was released after posting $2,500 bail, records show. She is due back in court Aug. 5.
3 Haddix, 55, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for lying to a federal judge about Tonka's death.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.
Her husband, Aswegan, was not initially arrested but 'is expected to be taken into custody at any time,' PETA said.
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