Tiger King Joe Exotic delaying treatment for resentencing

OKLAHOMA CITY >> The former Oklahoma zookeeper known as “Tiger King” Joe Exotic is delaying prostate cancer treatments until after his resentencing on convictions for a murder-for-hire plot and violating federal wildlife laws, according to a motion filed in federal court.

Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage and is referred to as Joseph Maldonado in the Wednesday filing, announced last month that he has prostate cancer.

He was transferred weeks later from a federal medical center in Fort Worth, Texas, to a federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina.

Federal officials have said Maldonado-Passage will need up to eight weeks of radiation treatments and would be unable to travel during the treatments.

The motion said Maldonado-Passage was told by his physicians that his condition can currently be safely monitored.

“Postponing radiation treatment until after resentencing would not be detrimental to his health as it is unlikely to affect his prognosis or outcome,” according to the document.

“Given the declination of radiation and the ability to postpone it pursuant to his own doctors, Mr. Maldonado does not want his resentencing hearing postponed any longer,” and asks for a sentencing date between Jan. 20 and Jan. 31.

“Additionally, if Mr. Maldonado is released within the next 6-18 months, more advanced options are available to him,” the filing states.

Maldonado-Passage, who was prominently featured in the Netflix documentary “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill Florida animal rights activist Carole Baskin and violating federal wildlife laws.

He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but a federal appeals court ruled in July that he should get a shorter prison sentence because the trial court wrongly treated the two convictions separately in calculating his prison term under sentencing guidelines.