Coronavirus: Tiger King star Joe Exotic transferred from isolation in prison to a medical centre

The star of Netflix’s Tiger King, Joe Exotic, has been transferred from prison to a medical centre, days after being placed in coronavirus isolation.

Hannah Frishberg

2 min read

April 3, 2020 - 2:05PM

Tiger King star Joe Exotic, 57, has been transferred from coronavirus isolation to a prison medical centre.

While the Netflix star has recently been in isolation following inmates in the same prison testing positive for the disease, it has not been confirmed whether he has caught COVID-19.

Inmate records show Thursday that Joseph “Exotic” Maldonado-Passage, is currently located at the Federal Bureau of Prisons-operated Federal Medical Center Fort Worth in Texas.

Exotic’s fourth husband, 24-year-old bartender Dillon Passage, told American talk show host Andy Cohen that Exotic had previously been isolated at the Grady County Jail in Chickasha, Oklahoma, over coronavirus concerns.

Cohen has recently recovered from the deadly illness himself, revealing that it “took about 10 or 11 days” to start feeling better.

Dillon Passage told Andy Cohen his husband, Joe Exotic, had been placed in medical care. Picture: Netflix.

The Oklahoma jail Exotic was previously held in, an hour’s drive from his former zoo, the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park “put him on COVID-19 isolation,” due to the fact that “the previous jail he was at, there were cases,” Passage said on Cohen’s SiriusXM series Andy Cohen Live.

He did not state whether Exotic had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The big cat lover and star of the hit Netflix docuseries is currently serving a 22-year sentence for falsifying wildlife records, violating the Endangered Species Act by killing five tiger cubs and federal charges for a 2017 murder-for-hire scheme targeting Big Cat Rescue founder and arch-nemesis Carole Baskin.

Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence in Oklahoma. Picture: AP.

“He is no longer here at this facility,” a Grady County staffer told The New York Post, recommending we reach out again tomorrow and speak to a different jail worker. The staffer added that the jail currently has “no comment.”

FMC Fort Worth did not respond to a request for comment.

Exotic is currently seeking a combined $USD 94 million from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, his former business partner Jeff Lowe and several former colleagues say.

The polygamist announced his lawsuit and issued a call for a pardon from Trump on March 19 on his Facebook page.

The big cat enthusiast has been working to be issued a pardon by US President Donald Trump. Picture: Netflix.

“This lawsuit has been filed in the name of Justice, The Trump Administration must be made aware of the Overreach, perjury, abuse of power and the failure to uphold the Oath of their position which is truth and Justice for all,” the gun-toting Oklahoma native wrote in the post.

Bookies are now taking bets on whether or not he’ll get it.

The show’s popularity has also prompted a Florida sheriff to seek leads in the 23-year-old missing person cold case for Baskin’s former husband, Jack “Don” Lewis.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced here with permission.