Tiger King's 'Joe Exotic' booked back into Florida jail

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. (WEAR) — The man famously known as "Joe Exotic" and "The Tiger King" is back in a Florida jail.

Jail records show Joseph Maldonado-Passage, 61, was booked into the Santa Rosa County Jail at 6:10 a.m. Wednesday on a hold for a federal court hearing.

Exotic was previously arrested in Gulf Breeze in 2018. The former Oklahoma wildlife park owner was then sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for his role in a 2017 murder-for-hire scheme to kill prominent animal rights activist Carole Baskin in Tampa.

Exotic has been serving time at a federal prison in Oklahoma before this latest trip back to Northwest Florida.

According to TMZ, Exotic was transferred to Santa Rosa County Jail to appear in court for a civil lawsuit involving a music dispute regarding songs played in the popular 2020 Tiger King documentary.

In January, WEAR sister station KOKH in Oklahoma reported that attorneys for Maldonado-Passage filed a motion for a new trial.