Source: US FBI
ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark on Thursday sentenced a woman to forty-six (46) months in prison for repeatedly lying in U.S. District Court and in court filings about the death of “Tonka,” a chimpanzee that once starred in Hollywood movies such as Buddy and George of the Jungle, and was the subject of a long running federal civil suit.
Tonia Haddix, 55, pleaded guilty on March 31 to three felony charges: two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. She admitted making repeated false statements that influenced and obstructed the administration of justice in a pending civil suit. Haddix repeatedly falsely claimed that Tonka died to avoid complying with a number of court Orders in the underlying suit, originally filed in 2016 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) over the care of Tonka and other chimpanzees at a facility operated by Haddix near Festus, Missouri.
Over a period of years, the District Court issued a number of Orders in that civil suit requiring Haddix to take steps to improve the facilities where the chimpanzees were housed, and to improve the chimpanzees’ care and feeding. When Haddix repeatedly failed to comply with those Orders, On July 14, 2021 the District Court found Haddix in violation and entered an additional Order requiring that Tonka and six other chimpanzees be transferred from Haddix’s possession to the Center for Great Apes. On July 28, 2021, six chimpanzees were removed by Court Order from the facility with the aid of Deputy U.S. Marshals and taken to the Center for Great Apes, but Haddix had secretly removed Tonka from the facility and transferred him to a facility in Ohio.
Over the next many months, Haddix continued to make false representations that Tonka had died. For example, on August 16, 2021, Haddix filed a declaration with the Court, under penalty of perjury, in which she falsely stated that Tonka died on May 30, 2021 and was cremated. Haddix claimed to have possession of Tonka’s remains. On December 27, 2021, Haddix filed a pro se motion to dismiss with prejudice PETA’s fourth motion seeking civil contempt. In that motion, Haddix again made numerous materially false representations that Tonka was dead. Her materially false statements influenced, obstructed and impeded the due administration of justice in that pending civil case.
On January 5, 2022, the District Court convened a hearing during which Haddix gave sworn testimony and again made materially false statements, again claiming that Tonka had died and was cremated. “…I wanted to keep trying to save Tonka if I could,” she wrote. “But then he just died on his own, so there was no saving him.” Based upon her false testimony, the District Court denied PETA’s motion for civil contempt.
On June 2, 2022, based upon newly discovered evidence presented to the District Court that Tonka was alive, the District Court entered its Order requiring Haddix to cooperate in the transfer of Tonka from her possession to a primate sanctuary. On June 8, 2022, again with the assistance of Deputy U.S. Marshals, Tonka was rescued from where he was being held in a cage in Haddix’s basement and transferred to a Save the Chimps sanctuary, where Tonka continues to live to this date.
Haddix subsequently appeared in the documentary “Chimp Crazy,” in which she was shown hiding Tonka while falsely claiming that he was dead.
Just two weeks after her guilty plea this year, Haddix concealed a new chimp from United States Pretrial Services officers who were conducting an inspection. That chimp was located in a cage in the basement of her home in Camden County, Missouri and rescued during a July 9 court-ordered search of her home. She was jailed for violating the conditions of her pretrial release and appearance bond, and will remain in jail until she is transferred to federal prison, Judge Clark said Thursday.
In the documentary and in media interviews while the civil case was pending, Haddix “repeatedly and publicly disclosed her animosity towards the Court and opposing party PETA, as well as her intent to violate the Court’s Orders requiring the surrender of the chimpanzees,” a sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith says. Haddix “challenged the Court’s authority to order her to surrender Tonka and the other chimpanzees, expressly stating her intent not to comply with the Court’s orders, and voicing various implied threats aimed at any law enforcement officers who might approach her business in an effort to execute the Court’s orders,” the memo says. Haddix also claimed she tried to run over PETA’s lawyer.
Haddix “reveled in her ability to obstruct justice and delay the civil proceedings, seeking credit and adulation from future viewers for conduct which was portrayed then as akin to a type of David and Goliath situation, with Defendant playing the role of David to the Court’s Goliath,” a separate government memo says. “But the Biblical David never harmed anyone but Goliath, nor sought fame for his acts nor, to put it in context here, ever kept live chimpanzees caged in a basement.”
Haddix profited from both her inclusion in the documentary and her “perjurious statements and false representations that allowed her to delay the inevitable and maintain possession of Tonka,” the memo says, through podcasts, media interviews, the operation of her “safari,” the sale of merchandise and drawings and the sale of personal appearances via an online site.
“Tonia Haddix’s lies about the death of Tonka were only part of a series of falsehoods that she told the District Court about her plans to properly care for the chimps in her custody,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas C. Albus. “She continued to lie, even as she pleaded guilty in March, as she was secretly keeping a new chimp in a cage in the basement of her home where she once confined Tonka. Justice is impossible if participants in the judicial system lie. This case should send a message that those lies will not be tolerated, nor will violations of plea agreements and pretrial release conditions.”
“This case is not about Tonia Haddix’s exotic animal business,” said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. “Her sentence today reflects her blatant disregard of our judicial process by telling wild lies under oath in front of a federal judge.”
The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith prosecuted the case.