'Chimp Crazy' star sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison for lying that primate had died
Tonia Haddix, 56, was also ordered Thursday to serve three years of supervised release after her 46-month prison sentence ends.
Haddix, who ran a primate facility the St. Louis suburb of Festus, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of perjury and one of obstructing justice.
It all started nearly a decade ago, when the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued, saying she was keeping several chimps in 'confined in cramped, virtually barren enclosures' at the now-defunct Missouri Primate Foundation facility.
Among the chimps was Tonka, who appeared in the 1997 movies 'Buddy' and 'George of the Jungle.' Actor Alan Cumming, the British-born actor who starred in the movie 'Buddy' alongside Tonka, also begged for the primate to be moved.
Haddix signed a consent decree in 2020 agreeing to send four of the chimps to a Florida sanctuary. The order allowed her to keep three others, including Tonka, at a facility she was to build.
But after a judge found that was not complying with the agreement, authorities arrived in 2021 and removed the remaining chimps, except for Tonka. Haddix claimed Tonka had died and that she had cremated the remains, according to court records.
'I wanted to keep trying to save Tonka if l could. But then he just died on his own, so there was no saving him,' she said, according to court records.
But Tonka was alive. In 2022, PETA removed him from a cage in the basement of her home in Sunrise Beach, Missouri, near the Lake of the Ozarks.
Haddix told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2022 that she lied to protect Tonka from 'the evil clutches of PETA.' She also admitted what happened in the third episode of 'Chimp Crazy,' which premiered last year, saying, 'Tonka was literally on the run with me.'
Just last month, investigators found another chimp locked up in the basement of her home in Sunrise Beach in violation of court orders, documents in the case said. She was arrested, and her bond revoked.
'Defendant has shown no remorse for her criminal conduct, and has continued to challenge and defy this Court's authority, and she should face a significant punishment as a result,' prosecutors wrote.
Her lawyer, Justin Gelfand, asked for mercy in court filings, saying she suffered abuse as a child and then endured several rocky marriages as an adult.
'This life taught her a clear lesson: humans are unpredictable and are not frequently safe or trustworthy,' Gelfand wrote. 'In the face of these harsh realities threaded throughout her life, Haddix came to form secure attachments with animals.'
PETA praised the sentence in a news release, saying that Haddix now 'can't hurt another chimpanzee.'
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Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
'Chimp Crazy' star Tonia Haddix sentenced to prison for lying about chimpanzee's death
The subject of the HBO docuseries will face nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to perjury and obstruction of points Chimp Crazy star Tonia Haddix was sentenced to 46 months in prison. The primate broker pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice after lying about the death of a chimpanzee in court. The chimp, Tonka, was moved to a sanctuary in Florida upon the discovery that he was still Crazy star Tonia Haddix is heading to prison. The Missouri-based primate broker, who was the subject of the 2024 HBO docuseries, was sentenced to 46 months in prison after lying about the death of a chimpanzee actor named Tonka in U.S. District Court. Haddix previously pleaded guilty to two felony counts of perjury and one felony count of obstruction of justice, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Representatives for Haddix did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment. Haddix operated the Missouri Primate Foundation, which was locked in a civil legal battle with PETA over alleged mistreatment of the chimpanzees in her care. Haddix "repeatedly failed to comply" with court orders instructing her to improve the quality of care she provided to her chimps, and in 2021, a judge ordered her to relinquish all of her primates to the Center for Great Apes sanctuary in Florida, according to the USAO. However, when authorities removed the rest of her apes, Haddix repeatedly claimed that Tonka had died, and that she had cremated his remains. "He just died on his own, so there was no saving him," she claimed, per the USAO. That false narrative extended into official court motions and declarations that constitute perjury since she was under oath. While shooting Chimp Crazy, the filmmakers behind the documentary — including Tiger King director Eric Goode — discovered that Tonka was alive in a cage in Maddix's basement. Upon hearing Maddix say that she planned to have the chimp euthanized, the production alerted PETA to the situation in 2022 and federal marshals transferred Tonka to the Save the Chimps sanctuary in Florida. The USAO also stated that two weeks after her guilty plea this year, Haddix was jailed for violating the terms of her pretrial release and appearance bond because a court-ordered search of her home revealed that she was hiding another chimp from authorities. "Now that Tonia Haddix is locked up, she's getting a taste of the suffering she inflicted on animals by imprisoning them in cages and denying them any semblance of a natural life," Brittany Peet, the PETA Foundation General Counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said in a statement. "PETA is relieved to see justice done and urges everyone to support the Captive Primate Safety Act, which will keep vulnerable monkeys and apes out of the pet trade and the hands of ruthless dealers like Haddix."Tonka, who appeared in films like George of the Jungle and Babe: Pig in the City before entering Haddix's care, has now adapted to a 17-chimp family at Save the Chimps. "When Tonka came to us, he was more human-oriented than chimp-oriented and rarely involved himself in group politics," Jenny Friedman, a care staffer for the sanctuary, said in a statement on Save the Chimps' website. "Now, you would never know that Tonka is new to the group. He interacts affectionately with all the chimps and will drop everything to join a grooming session." Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
New York Times
11 hours ago
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‘Chimp Crazy' Star Gets Nearly 4 Years in Prison for Lying About Ape's Death
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Associated Press
11 hours ago
- Associated Press
Former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster dies at 101
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