Latest news with #Antle
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Doc' Antle's federal sentencing for conspiracy, money laundering moved to July 8
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WBTW) — The sentencing hearing on federal charges for Myrtle Beach Safari founder Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle is now scheduled for July 8 in U.S. District Court in Charleston. Antle, the former star of the 'Tiger King' docuseries on Netflix, pleaded guilty in November 2023 to federal conspiracy and money laundering charges — admitting to violations of The Lacey Act, which prohibits trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish or plants, including animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. A timeline of all details in the ongoing 'Doc' Antle case According to online federal court records, Antle's sentencing had been scheduled for Tuesday. However, after being moved to June 23, it was reset again last week. Antle is now scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Joseph Dawson III at 10:30 a.m. on July 8. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release for each count. The Myrtle Beach Safari is a 50-acre wildlife tropical preserve that offers tours and private encounters with exotic wildlife. Antle is also the director of the Rare Species Fund, a nonprofit organization registered in South Carolina. According to the DOJ, Antle conspired to violate the Lacey Act between September 2018 and May 2020 by directing the sale or purchase of two cheetah cubs, two lion cubs, two tigers and a juvenile chimpanzee — all of which are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Antle scored a legal win in February after the Virginia Court of Appeals tossed a pair of felony convictions. Antle's lawyers argued that his conviction for purchasing lion cubs was the result of a misunderstanding of a Virginia statute that prohibits the sale of endangered species but not their purchase. * * * Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Former ‘Tiger King' star, Myrtle Beach safari owner set for federal sentencing in conspiracy, money laundering case
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) –Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle, the former star of Netflix's 'Tiger King' docuseries and founder of Myrtle Beach Safari, is slated to be sentenced next month on federal conspiracy and money laundering charges. Antle, 63, pleaded guilty in November 2023 — admitting to violations of The Lacey Act that prohibits trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish or plants, including animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. Antle is set to appear before U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Dawson III at 10:30 a.m. on June 10 in Charleston, according to federal records. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release for each count. The Myrtle Beach Safari is a 50-acre wildlife tropical preserve that offers tours and private encounters with exotic wildlife. Antle is also the director of the Rare Species Fund, a nonprofit organization registered in South Carolina. According to the DOJ, Antle conspired to violate the Lacey Act between September 2018 and May 2020 by directing the sale or purchase of two cheetah cubs, two lion cubs, two tigers and a juvenile chimpanzee — all of which are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Antle scored a legal win in February after the Virginia Court of Appeals tossed a pair of felony convictions. Antle's lawyers argued that his conviction of purchasing lion cubs was due to a misunderstanding of a Virginia statute that prohibits the sale of endangered species but not their purchase. * * * Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Yahoo
Virginia court overturns pair of felony convictions against Tiger King star ‘Doc' Antle
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Tiger King star Bhagavan 'Doc' Antle scored a legal win last week after the Virginia Court of Appeals tossed a pair of felony convictions — but the Myrtle Beach-based wildlife handler still faces multiple federal charges. Antle, owner of Myrtle Beach Safari and star of two Netflix documentaries in 2020 and 2021, was convicted in June 2023 on two counts each of purchasing an endangered species and conspiracy to sell or purchase an endangered species. Antle's lawyers argued that his conviction of purchasing lion cubs was due to a misunderstanding of a Virginia statute that prohibits the sale of endangered species but not their purchase. Antle-updateDownload A jury acquitted Antle of five counts of animal cruelty and Judge Alexander Iden dismissed four additional animal cruelty charges against Antle and all charges against his two adult daughters, The Winchester Star reported. Prosecutor Michelle Welch said during Antle's trial that his lucrative petting zoo motivated him to maintain a steady supply of immature lion cubs that he purchased from Keith Wilson's Wild Animal Park near Winchester, calling the arrangement a 'cub pipeline' from Virginia to South Carolina. When Antle and Wilson began doing business in 2015, it was still legal to buy and sell lions, Welch said. But after lions were designated as an endangered species in December 2015, lions could only be traded between zoos and wildlife preserves that were part of an established breeding program and had permits. There were three illegal cub exchanges in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Welch said. Antle has also pleaded guilty on the federal level for conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and conspiracy to launder money. The Lacey Act prohibits trafficking of illegally taken wildlife, fish or plants, including animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Virgina Court of Appeals upheld Antle's convictions for conspiracy to sell an endangered species. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Jailer: Grant will help released inmates receive medical care
Leaving prison can be as stressful an experience as it is joyful — there are a lot of considerations that go into starting one's life over, including finding the right doctor. The Pulaski County Detention Center is aware of that, and with the help of the Pulaski County Fiscal Court, is trying to take that item off the to-do list of its departing inmates. Jailer Anthony McCollum introduced the Fiscal Court on Tuesday to Tracey Antle, Chief Operating Officer for Cumberland Family Medical Center, a federally qualified health center with offices in Russell County and a coverage scope of several counties, including Pulaski. Antle informed the court that Cumberland Family Medical Center had the opportunity to apply for a grant last summer that would allow them to provide transitional services for detainees as they leave the detention center, in the 90 days prior to their release. 'We're not coming into the jail to replace anything they're already doing; they're already doing a great job, they already have a really strong reentry program,' said Antle. 'This grant would just allow us to help those folks reenter the community more successfully by making sure that when they get out they have a doctor that they can go to. 'A lot of times, you leave a detention center and you're getting your medications for your diabetes or your heart disease or whatever you may have ... and you leave (and) you don't have a doctor anymore,' she added. 'You know how hard it is to make an appointment at a doctor's office sometimes. So we want to work with those folks to make sure that as they leave, they can — the very day, even — come into a clinic somewhere and get the medications they need to be healthy.' Antle said Cumberland Family will also help connect those leaving the detention center with any mental health treatments they may need, including family counseling and substance abuse counseling. According to information provided by Cumberland Family Medical Center in a release, studies show that as many as 80% of individuals released from incarceration have either or both chronic medical and substance use conditions. Nearly half of those entering incarceration meet the criteria for having a substance use disorder and struggle to access and afford medication assisted and other substance use disorder treatments upon release. There is no billing for anything, said Antle, and the service comes at no cost to the jail or county as a result of the grant, known as the Quality Improvement Fund- Transitions in Care for Justice-Involved Population award, funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via the Health Resources and Services Administration. The goal is 'to see if we can take these folks as they leave incarceration and help them make a more seamless transition back into the community through jobs, through health care, through behavioral health ... whatever their needs are, to make them return to the community more quickly, more safely, and in a more productive manner.' The fiscal court approved the Memorandum of Understanding needed to help the deal go through. The detention center will provide space for a program director along with other providers that will be coming and going. The two-year grant can be renewed after that period, and can be terminated with a 60 day notice. 'This pays the full salary and the full benefit package of the employee we already had doing it, so I think it's a win-win for the county,' said McCollum. 'I try to put a lot of emphasis on our reentry programs for the inmates, to get them educated as far as having a GED or some type of diploma, or something to where they can enter the work force once they're released from the detention center,' added the jailer to the fiscal court. Also at the fiscal court meeting on Tuesday, the court approved an updated electrical inspector ordinance upon its second reading. The ordinance adds in a $25 permit fee that inspectors had been charging but wasn't in the previous version of the ordinance, and the court also approved four new electrical inspectors to work on behalf of the county. 'We had to re-do the ordinance which hadn't been done since 2017,' Pulaski County Judge-Executive Marshall Todd explained to the Commonwealth Journal. 'The electrical inspectors that we had at a time, one is going into semi-retirement and the other is already gone away, so we were down an inspector for the county basically, so we had to revisit and update the ordinance, and then we had to clarify ... at least one fee on the fee structure, which the county doesn't get, it just goes to the electrical inspectors themselves.' The four inspectors approved included Jackie Spears of Wayne County, McCreary County's Larry Strunk, Lincoln County's Michael Ledger, and Ron Ebling locally. Also approved by the court was a resolution authorizing the completion and filing of a Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation Program project application for up to $50,000 to help with a community development block grant housing project. Back in September, the court passed the original resolution to help the Lake Cumberland Area Development District move ahead with the purchase of 86 apartment units in Pulaski County, over four different complexes. With a total project cost of $600,000, the first resolution covered $540,000 of that in federal funds, and the new resolution covers all but $10,000 of the remainder, and there's a solution for that too. 'They've already been awarded a $10,000 pre-development cost grant,' said Todd. 'It's a 4 % match. So all the $600,000 is now approved.' Some of the existing apartment units to be acquired and refurbished for eventual use by low-income seniors will be located on Hail Knob Road and on University Drive, as well as another location. The non-profit Ezekial Foundation will be the owner of the facilities, but the project's funding is going through Lake Cumberland Area Development District offices. Pulaski County Government is serving as a pass-through agency for the grant.
