
‘Tiger King' star Joe Exotic gets married behind bars to inmate doing time for immigration crimes
'Tiger King' Joe Exotic has gotten married again while locked up in prison — to an inmate doing time for immigration crimes whom he hopes to help get asylum in the US.
The incarcerated former zookeeper shared a picture his new husband, 33-year-old Mexican national Jorge Flores Maldonado, Tuesday night posing together in tuxedos and plain white hats with white boutonnières to match.
'Never been more proud of someone,' wrote the Netflix star, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage.
Advertisement
Joe Exotic has announced that he's tied the knot to Jorge Flores Madonado despite being in the midst of a 21-year federal prison sentence.
@joe_exotic/X
'Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado.'
Maldonado's new husband is currently serving time for immigration issues, the reality star previously said, according to CBS News.
Exotic posted back in October after he'd announced his engagement that he was working on 'getting [Marquez] asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out.'
Advertisement
In response to one social media user wishing him luck in his case appeal Tuesday, Maldonado said he has 'no problem going to Mexico' with his new husband if released.
Joe Exotic announced his engagement to Jorge Marquez.
@joe_exotic/X
The convicted felon had previously married Dillon Passage in December 2017 — just two months after Exotic's previous husband, Travis Maldonado, died in a self-inflicted, accidental shooting. They split in 2020.
Maldonado is currently serving a 21-year sentence for plotting to hire a hitman to murder big-cat arch-rival Carole Baskin and violating federal wildlife laws.
Advertisement
The eccentric prisoner gained worldwide fame from the Netflix 2020 docuseries 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness' that showcased his work and personal life as he looked after exotic big cats at his G.W. Zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
He was arrested in September 2018 in the middle of filming the show after he offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent during to kill Baskin.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Chicago Tribune
34 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Mexico's president calls for no ICE raids during Mexico-Dominican Republic soccer match in Los Angeles
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged U.S. officials on Friday not to target individuals attending a Gold Cup soccer match in Los Angeles between the Mexican national team and the Dominican Republic. Dozens of workers have been detained by federal immigration authorities in a series of raids in LA's fashion district and at Home Depot parking lots in Southern California. More than 100 people have been detained. 'We don't believe that there will be any raids if there's a soccer game,' Sheinbaum said in a news conference. 'We hope there won't be any. We call for no action from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.' Mexico is scheduled to play the Dominican Republic on Saturday night at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., in a group-stage match of the Gold Cup. Usually, the Mexican national team matches attract thousands of fans whenever they play in Southern California. Their last match there was in March, when more than 50,000 fans attended a League of Nations semifinal against Canada. In the most recent measure in the administration's immigration crackdown, President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops and Marines to the Los Angeles area after the raids sparked days of tumultuous protests throughout the city. The city's downtown has seen a variety of protests, from quiet to boisterous. Over the weekend, protesters blocked a key freeway and set cars on fire. For safety concerns, the Mexican national team decided to change hotels earlier in the week and moved from downtown to Long Beach. Sheinbaum also said that the Mexican consulates in the United States have implemented an information campaign guide for Mexicans in the event of unjust detention by immigration authorities. 'This campaign we are carrying out through the consulates will provide all the information on what to do if detained, as well as ongoing contact with families,' Sheinbaum said.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chabria: The gaslighting of Alex Padilla is already in full swing on the right
Lunging men are perceived as dangerous. In an America that has long weaponized descriptions of how men of color look and move to justify use of force, that is especially true of dark men lunging at white women. So when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said after Sen. Alex Padilla interrupted her news conference Thursday that "people need to identify themselves before they start lunging" — it's hard to believe it wasn't meant to be an intentionally loaded word, with loaded results. For those of you who don't watch Fox and other right-wing media, I'll fill you in on how Noem's description played out. Padilla, the Trumpian version of the story now goes, got what he deserved: He busted into a press conference uninvited, they say, pushed his way toward the stage and failed to identify himself. Just ask my inbox. "Here is what your article should have said," wrote one fan of my column about the incident. "'DEI appointee Senator Alex Padilla, dressed like a truck driver and acting like a potential attacker or mental case, burst into a press conference being conducted by a high ranking member of the Cabinet and started shouting and interrupting her.'" Another reader put that dog-whistle racism more succinctly. "No Juan above the law," the reader quipped. We'll get to whether Padilla lunged or not and just how dangerous a lunge really is. But the larger issue is the alternate reality the Trump administration is building to cultivate fear and build support for a military crackdown. The ask isn't that we believe Padilla was a threat, but that we believe that America has devolved into a immigrant-induced chaos that only the military can quell, and that Trump needs the powers of a king to lead the military to our salvation. Read more: Chabria: Trump detests the very thing we love about L.A. So the question isn't really whether Padilla lunged or not — since, as the video shows, it's clear he was nowhere close to Noem and had no intent to harm — but rather why Noem chose to call it a lunge. "It was very disingenuous of Kristi Noem to make the claim that he lunged at her," Joan Donovan told me. She's an expert on disinformation and an assistant professor of journalism at Boston University. "The Trump administration is salivating over a major contestation that would allow them to roll the military out into any old town," she said. "They are making it seem as if without this kind of major intervention and excessive force, that these people are ungovernable." Padilla, the son of Mexican immigrants, is known to be a level-headed guy. My colleague Gustavo Arellano describes him as a "goody-two-shoes." But these aren't level-headed days. Padilla said that he was in the federal building on Thursday for a briefing with a general, because for weeks he's been trying unsuccessfully to get answers about how deportations are being handled. That briefing was delayed by Noem's news conference, and so — escorted by federal authorities who knew exactly who they were escorting, Padilla said — he went to listen to Noem in the hopes of getting some information. Padilla said he got fed up listening to her remarks about criminals and invasions and tried to ask a question, while moving forward past the wall of television cameras. In the videos I've watched, multiple federal agents — seemingly some from Homeland Security and the FBI — block his way then begin pushing him back. Padilla seems to continue to push forward, but is overpowered and forced into the hallway. It's here where he's taken to the ground and cuffed. It's hard to see a lunge in there. And if there was one, it was from at least a good 10 feet away from Noem, at a minimum. Use-of-force expert Ed Obayashi told me that in situations such as this, law enforcement officers are expected to use their judgment on what is a danger. "They were trying to keep him from approaching," Obayashi said, pointing out it was the officers' job to protect Noem. "They were trying to do what they could under the circumstances to prevent him from getting closer." But, he added, from what we can see in the videos, it doesn't look like Padilla showed "intent" to cause harm and he was really far away. Distance makes a difference when judging whether a lunge is a threat. "It doesn't seem like he was going to rush up," Obayashi said. So, to be fair to officers who may or may not have at first realized they were manhandling a U.S. senator, they had a job to do and were doing it, even if a bit zealously. But Noem knows better. It's hard to imagine she didn't recognize Padilla, who served on her confirmation committee and is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship and Border Safety. And if she didn't, her confidant and close advisor Corey Lewandowski certainly did. Padilla told the New York Times that he was being detained in the hallway 'when of all people, Corey Lewandowski ... comes running down the hall and he starts yelling, 'Let him go! Let him go!'' And of course, Padilla was yelling that he was a senator, and forcefully denies any lunge. 'I wasn't lunging at her or anybody, and yes, I identified myself,' he said on CNN. Noem, of course, could have said something in the moment to defuse the situation. She could have asked Padilla back into the room to answer his question. Padilla said the two met after the news conference and spoke for about 15 minutes, which means Noem knew his intentions when she later accused him of "lunging." So what could have been handled as an unfortunate encounter was instead purposely upgraded for propaganda purposes. Shortly after Noem's statement, the White House press secretary posted on X that Padilla "recklessly lunged toward the podium," cementing that narrative into right-wing conscientiousness. For weeks, the Trump administration has been ramping up its war on dissent. Weeks before Padilla was handcuffed, U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) was indicted by a grand jury for "forcibly impeding and interfering" with federal law enforcement after a scuffle outside of a New Jersey ICE detention center. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested during the same incident, but charges were later dropped. Read more: Arellano: Sen. Alex Padilla's crime? Being Mexican in MAGA America In April, Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested inside her own courthouse after being accused of helping an immigrant appearing in her court to evade ICE officers by allowing him to exit through a public door. And just before the Padilla incident, Noem claimed that federal agents would remain in Los Angeles despite protests, where hundreds have been cited or arrested. By Friday, Marines had been deployed in Los Angeles, with little clarity on whether their guns contained live rounds and under what circumstances they were authorized to fire. 'We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city," Noem said, right before Padilla interrupted. Liberate an American city. With troops. Quash dissent. With fear. A survey last fall by PRRI found that 26% of Republicans say that 'it is necessary for the progress of this country that the president has the power to limit the influence of opposing parties and groups.' It also found that there is a "strong overlap among Americans who hold Christian nationalist and authoritarian views." "If it is the case that Trump and Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth are going to continue arresting Democratic representatives, then that is authoritarianism," Donovan said. "Those are the people whose job it is to represent the common man, and if they can't do that because they're so bogged down with false charges or trumped-up charges, then we don't live in a democracy." Padilla may have lost his trademark cool during that press conference, but Noem did not. She knew exactly what she was saying, and why. A Padilla asking questions is a threat to Trump. A Padilla lunging becomes a threat to society, one that only Trump can stop. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Border Patrol finds 13lbs of meth plastic wrapped to man at San Diego checkpoint
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A man that went through an immigration checkpoint in southern San Diego County near the U.S.-Mexico border was found with 13 pounds of meth plastic wrapped to his body, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports. A vehicle that went through an immigration checkpoint along I-8 in Pine Valley just before noon Sunday was sent to a second inspection by Border Patrol agents, who found six bundles plastic wrapped to a man's back and ankles under his clothes during a safety pat down. Cabbage heads filled with meth balls land Mexican man in prison The contents were weighed and tested, and found to contain 13 pounds of methamphetamine, an estimated street value of $15,660, according to CBP. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) took custody of the unidentified man, described only as an adult U.S. citizen, and the meth. Border Patrol seized the vehicle for suspected use as a smuggling conveyance. The man is facing federal charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute, according to CBP. Carlsbad police seize drugs, cash and car in major narcotics operation 'This is another great example of the outstanding work that the men and women of the Campo Border Patrol Station do every day to secure our border and make our communities safe,' said Campo Station Patrol Agent in Charge Michael W. Davis. So far this fiscal year, San Diego Sector has seized 2,538 pounds of methamphetamine, 2,586 pounds of cocaine, 250 pounds of fentanyl, and 56 pounds of heroin, CBP reports. CBP releases drug seizures total in May To report suspicious activity to the U.S. Border Patrol, residents can contact 911 or San Diego Sector at 619-498-9900. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.