A Florida sheriff confirmed rumors that Carole Baskin‘s husband Don Lewis had his will forged. Some reports recently show off the big-cats rights activist has been in the news recently for getting a hold of Joe Exotic’s old zoo. The Hillsborough County sheriff’s name is Chad Chorister and he told 10 Tampa Bay all about the new information that has become public. Lewis famously disappeared in 1997 and he was officially declared dead in 2002. Tiger King put a massive spotlight on the missing persons’ case and the fallout from the searches. A lot of people on social media claimed that Baskin was responsible for the entire thing. This news will do little to douse those flames as more details emerge.
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“They called in some experts to say that the will was a forgery and I had already told them that two months ago,” Chronister mentioned. “They had two experts deem it 100% a forgery.”
“That’s the only reason. There’s no recourse,” he added. “A judge deemed it valid. So the civil side of it, with the execution of the will [and] dispersement of the funds is one thing. But then you have the criminal side which is unable to prosecute.”
This all comes literal days after the GW Zoo got handed over to the Tiger King star. Joe Exotic is still sitting in prison serving a 22-year sentence for attempting to hire someone to murder her. The animal abuse and endangerment is also of note for the celebrity as well. Jeff Lowe was reported to have 120 days to vacate the premises along with the animals that currently inhabit the space. All of this drama dates back to 2016 when Exotic was found accountable for paying his rival $1 million due to trademark infringement. Exotic’s mother, Shirley M. Schreibvogel had the land transferred over to her in an attempt to avoid paying the fees.
“Schreibvogel later admitted under oath that the zoo land was transferred to her by Joe Maldonado to remove it from the reach of creditors, including BCR, should BCR win its Florida lawsuit,” the complaint detailed. “Schreibvogel also admitted in 2015, via a confession of judgment she entered into to resolve a lawsuit filed against he by the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee overseeing Joe Maldonado’s personal bankruptcy estate, that the zoo land was fraudulently transferred to her by Joe Maldonado in 2011 to avoid his creditors.”
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