Who is Joe Exotic? Tiger King star marries fellow inmate amid 21-year prison sentence
Joe Exotic, born Joseph Maldonado-Passage, has married fellow prison inmate Jorge Marquez, reported TMZ. The Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness star took to X on Tuesday to share the news about his nuptials. The post included a photo of the duo posing together in matching black tuxedos and white hats.
'Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado,' Joe wrote. The 62-year-old is a former zookeeper who is serving a 21-year prison sentence for a murder-for-hire plot against animal rights activist Carole Baskin.
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Joe was sentenced in January 2020 for violating federal wildlife laws and for his role in a failed murder-for-hire plot targeting his chief rival, Baskin, who runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida, according to AP.
The news about his behind bars marriage to Jorge comes just six months after he revealed his engagement to the 33-year-old Mexican national, who is jailed for immigration-related issues, in October 2024.
'Meet Jorge Marquez he is 33. He is so amazing and is from Mexico. Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out,' Joe wrote at the time.
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'Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago,' he added in the X post that featured a photo of him and his then-fiance. The incarcerated television personality was previously married to Dillon Passage, with whom he parted ways in 2020.
Dillon and Joe tied the knot in December 2017, just two months after the latter's previous husband, Travis Maldonado, died in a self-inflicted, accidental shooting.
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Indian Express
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Trump deploys 2,000 more National Guard troops in Los Angeles: All you need to know about protests against immigration raids
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As per the intelligence officials, the protesters are getting fuelled up by several factors, including immigration raids, National Guards deployment among others. Why did the protests begin? The car park of a hardware store in Los Angeles became the centre of protests led by dozens of day labourers and undocumented immigrants last Friday, after the Trump administration launched an extensive crackdown on illegal immigrants, conducting raids across Southern California. The federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people that day across the city. The Los Angeles police arrested 29 people Saturday night 'for failure to disperse' and made 21 more arrests on Sunday on charges ranging from attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assault on a police officer to looting, AP report noted. The police department also confirmed in a news release that it used tear gas and more than 600 rubber bullets and other less-than-lethal munitions over the weekend. The department says five officers sustained minor injuries, according to the report. Since then, according to the federal authorities, the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area has surpassed 100. Demonstrations stretched till late Monday as LA Police officers, who used flash bangs and shot projectiles into the gathering as they pushed the protesters through a crowded, popular commercial area where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way, AP report described. On Monday, thousands took to the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for jailed labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond, as per the AP report. Huerta, who is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers, was arrested on Friday for protesting against the immigration raids. The relatives of detained workers also demanded early Monday that their loved ones be released. Troops deployed Two days after the protesters took to streets last week, the US administration announced the deployment of about 2,000 National Guards troops in LA, which according to the White House, aimed at addressing the 'lawlessness' that was 'allowed to fester' in California. Objecting to this initial move, California Governor Gavin Newsom, said that the decision was 'purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.' Further, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth Monday announced on X (formerly Twitter) the deployment of at least 700 Marines at the site, to 'restore order.' The US military's actions towards the protesters, however, do not stop here. Just this morning, Trump authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard members to help respond to protests. The latest order brings the total number of Guard troops put on federal orders for the protests to more than 4,100, AP noted. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama. In a social media post Sunday, Trump called the demonstrators 'violent, insurrectionist mobs' and said he had directed Cabinet officers 'to take all such action necessary' to stop what he called 'riots'. Speaking to reporters in New Jersey further, Trump threatened violence against protesters: 'They spit, we hit.' 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Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants and set a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants a day. However, this is not new. Since assuming power on January 20 this year, Trump has announced various immigration-related executive orders, a part of a widespread effort to crack down on undocumented migrants in the US. Sticking to his promise of 'mass deportations,' about 1,000 people were removed or repatriated via military aircrafts within a week of Trump assuming the office, BBC News reported. According to the report, Trump also expanded the scope of expedited deportations of undocumented migrants, which allows removals to be carried out anywhere in the US, and applies to undocumented migrants who cannot prove that they have been in the country for more than two years. 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- Hindustan Times
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Mint
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BET Awards 2025: Star-studded moments celebrating the best in entertainment
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