TAMPA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - One of the main characters of the one-time Netflix sensation "Tiger King" faces a defamation lawsuit for dragging up the past.
Plaintiff Anne McQueen sued Carole Baskin on March 18 in Florida's HIllsborough County Circuit Court. The allegations stem from video diaries from the 1990s that McQueen says Baskin edited and released more than two decades later.
McQueen was an employee of Baskin's former husband Don Lewis, whose disappearance in 1997 played a major role in the "Tiger King" series. The show chronicled characters involved in battles between zoos and big cat rescues.
McQueen's role in 1997 was to keep operating what is now known as Big Cat Rescue after the disappearance of Lewis. An injunction that year enjoined all persons from any dealings with Lewis' assets, the complaint says, "except that Anne McQueen was the only one allowed to enter the premises for purposes of conducting the usual and ongoing business..."
A 1998 notarized apology from Baskin to McQueen acknowledged Baskin wrongly made allegations McQueen was trying to take over Big Cat Rescue and was possibly involved in Lewis' disappearance. McQueen was also paid $50,000 to settle her libel and slander claims, the suit says.
McQueen says old Baskin video diaries were released in 2020, featuring the original slander for which Baskin already apologized. Some 14 pages of print diary were also published in the sanctuary's newsletter "Cat-Tales."
Baskin videos said McQueen was "spiriting documents away" to hide "all of the stuff that was going on with Anne putting stuff into her name."
"That is why I want to see Anne in jail for embezzlement. She and Wendell may have gotten away with doing harm to Don but they haven't escaped all of their treacherous deeds. I want what little justice Don and I may ever see from this whole ordeal," a Baskin diary says.
The lawsuit, which can be found here, alleges many more statements are defamatory. McQueen is represented by Amy Hanna of Phillips & Hunt in Jacksonville.