The “Chimp Crazy” legal saga continues.
On Wednesday, PETA filed a new motion in its case against Tonia Haddix citing events captured in the HBO documentary series as evidence. The animal rights group is seeking an order requiring Haddix and her alleged accomplices to prove they have not violated prior court orders or committed perjury in prior proceedings.
Premiering in August, the four-episode “Chimp Crazy” followed Haddix, an animal broker who had taken over the now-defunct Missouri Primate Foundation, amid an ongoing legal battle with PETA over custody of several chimpanzees.
In its new filing in the Eastern District of Missouri, PETA alleges that “Chimp Crazy” provides new evidence of cases in which Haddix lied and defied court orders, as well as confessions. The motion includes timestamps for each episode that point to instances the organization says show Haddix violating court orders, including those prohibiting her from relocating any chimpanzees on her own, sharing details about the time and date of the transfer of the chimpanzees. animals by court order or record any video of these transfers. According to PETA's motion, recording equipment was not even allowed to be present during his court hearings.
“The Endangered Species Act…cannot function as Congress intended, and in the manner this Court intended, under the shadow that such contempt is not adequately addressed,” the motion states. “Haddix publicly disobeying this Court and then profiting from her disobedience by sharing it with a national audience will only incentivize future defendants to engage in similar misconduct unless this Court intervenes decisively.”
Haddix could not immediately be reached for comment.
Among the scandalous events captured in “Chimp Crazy” is Haddix's appearance at a virtual hearing to testify that she had nothing to do with the disappearance of Tonka, a chimpanzee she falsely claimed was dead. The series describes how Haddix kidnapped and hid Tonka to prevent him from being sent to an animal sanctuary as ordered.
Eventually, Tonka was found and removed from Haddix's custody and placed in a shrine. In 2022, Haddix was ordered to pay more than $220,000 to PETA for attorneys' fees and other costs incurred in the case. At that time, the court referred Haddix and her husband, Jerry Aswegan, to the federal prosecutor for a criminal investigation, but so far they have not yet been charged with any crimes related to the “Chimp Crazy” case. (Aswegan could not immediately be reached for comment.)
According to PETA, the notoriety Haddix has gained by appearing in the docuseries (including her parody on “Saturday Night Live”) has allowed her to capitalize on her “flagrant disobedience” to court orders through marketing and other opportunities now available thanks to to his celebrity and shows his “apparent effort to monetize his misconduct.”
PETA also alleges that “Chimp Crazy” implicates Aswegan, as well as Missouri Primate Foundation founder Connie Casey and Cy Viestra, a former roadside zoo operator in Ohio, as Haddix's accomplices. (Viestra was convicted of stealing money from the municipality where he worked to help finance his facilities.)
The motion also includes PETA's request that the court allow the organization to gather additional evidence related to the “Chimp Crazy” revelations. If the court finds Haddix and her alleged accomplices in contempt, PETA seeks appropriate sanctions and to recover costs associated with the refiling.
