'Tiger King' star Carole Baskin seeks help from Florida Supreme Court after defamation suit

“Tiger King” star Carole Baskin is asking the Florida Supreme Court to protect her against a defamation lawsuit filed by the longtime assistant of her missing former husband.

Whether it will is yet to be seen. But in new legal filings, that assistant, Anne McQueen, told the state’s highest court to throw out the animal rights activist’s request, leaving an appeals court decision as is.

Leading up to the airing of “Tiger King,” a Netflix documentary series that became a cult phenomenon in 2020, Baskin endeavored “to address a false storyline (that) suggested she killed her former husband,” according to legal filings from the star. 

Baskin read aloud old diary entries on her YouTube channel and posted on her website accusations that McQueen, who had appeared on the show to discuss Baskin's former husband’s mysterious disappearance, embezzled and committed other misdeeds.

McQueen sued Baskin for defamation in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, but a judge there said the assistant had no grounds to sue. A state appeals court disagreed with the lower court.

Now Baskin is asking the state's Supreme Court to weigh in, raising the stakes on a series of legal arguments encompassing the First Amendment and defamation law.

But first: What is ‘Tiger King?’

“Tiger King” was released in March 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. It became an instant hit, with more than 34 million unique United States viewers in its first 10 days, according to reports at the time.

The series explored the life of Joe Exotic (his legal name: Joseph Maldonado; another used name: "The Tiger King"), who owned a now-closed animal park in Oklahoma. It had a couple hundred big cats, including – unsurprisingly – tigers.

Featured prominently throughout the show was Joe Exotic’s feud with Baskin, founder of the Florida-based Big Cat Rescue sanctuary. Baskin is an advocate against big cat ownership and cub-petting, a practice that Joe Exotic profited from. 

Also given attention was the mysterious disappearance of Baskin’s first husband, Don Lewis. Joe Exotic accused Baskin of killing Lewis and feeding him to her tigers, which Baskin adamantly denies.

McQueen appeared on the show, too, as well as on its second season. The assistant said she thought Baskin knew more about her former husband's disappearance than she was revealing. (In turn, Baskin, in statements mentioned in the defamation lawsuit, implies McQueen played a role in the disappearance.)

What the circuit court said

The Hillsborough Circuit Court ruled in Baskin's favor in 2022. Among the reasons: McQueen was a “limited purpose public figure” due to her appearances on “Tiger King," Judge Jennifer Gabbard said.

That means she faces a higher bar in winning her suit, having to prove “actual malice” occurred. The standard, created by a U.S. Supreme Court decision, requires the statement to have been made with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard of the truth. 

Gabbard said that didn’t happen. 

She also ruled that Baskin was a “media defendant.” Under state defamation law, that means someone suing for defamation must first provide official notice to a defendant, which McQueen didn’t do, according to the ruling.

And, in another blow to McQueen and her legal team, the court found that she had violated the state anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) statute, which is meant to shield First Amendment-protected speech. Baskin’s statements were protected by state law and the First Amendment, the circuit court said, because they represented her opinions.

Appeals court disagrees

That decision was appealed to Florida's Second District Court of Appeal. It didn’t appear happy with the lower court.

“A sanctuary for lions and tigers, the unexplained disappearance of one of its owners, and competing allegations of embezzlement, double-dealing, and betrayal have spawned a defamation lawsuit,” read the appeal court’s November ruling. “Near the outset of the litigation, the circuit court curtailed discovery and entered a final judgment in favor of the defendant. For the reasons that follow, we reverse.”

The three-judge panel disagreed that Baskin should be classified as a “media defendant” requiring pre-defamation suit notice.

“Our focus remains on the content of the digital publication and the central issue of whether it could be likened to the kind of content newspapers, broadcasters, and periodicals publish,” wrote Judge Matthew Lucas in the opinion. “Ms. Baskin's (YouTube) vlog and website postings fall short of that mark.”

The judges said Baskin’s statements weren’t protected speech, going against the finding that McQueen violated anti-SLAPP law. 

“We must note that the circuit court's conclusion that Ms. Baskin's published statements were mere opinion, hyperbole, or mental impressions is somewhat incongruous with the court's conclusion elsewhere that Ms. Baskin was a ‘media defendant’ who ‘regularly posts information’ and ‘shares information that is of public interest,” Lucas wrote.

Baskin’s statements were factual allegations, not opinions, the appeals court said: “The character of these statements, if they are false, would be quintessentially defamatory.”

Not the first legal dispute between the pair

The state appeals court also made much of the fact that Baskin and McQueen had been through something similar before. When Lewis went missing in the late 1990s, they had a dispute about his conservatorship.

In an eventual settlement between them, McQueen received $50,000, in part for a "libel and slander claim" against Baskin, according to the appeals ruling.

Baskin also had to provide a written apology. It read: "I, Carole Lewis, apologize to Anne McQueen for all the allegations that I have made about Anne McQueen. . . . I have found that the allegations made were without full knowledge of the facts, which I now know are unfounded."

The appeals court said it couldn’t ignore that.

“Ms. Baskin had previously issued a written apology to Ms. McQueen for her ‘unfounded’ allegations which she had made ‘without full knowledge of the facts,' ” it said.

What's posed before the Supreme Court?

Baskin is telling the Supreme Court that the appeals court got it all wrong.

“This case presents constitutional questions of whether free speech about public figures must receive the same level of protection in Florida as in every other state, and whether Florida has receded from the ‘actual malice’ standard,” her legal team wrote in a filing. 

She’s, in part, accusing the three-judge panel of ignoring that standard. But McQueen denies this, saying the court made clear the written apology supported a finding of actual malice.

“Baskin’s continued insistence that McQueen’s complaint failed to allege actual malice is at odds with the express language of the written opinion,” McQueen's attorneys wrote in a competing filing earlier this month.

There's no set date on when Florida Supreme Court will decide whether to take up the case. Most appeals don't reach the justices.

"From a practical standpoint, the briefing schedule on jurisdiction is not yet complete," said Paul Flemming, a court spokesperson, in an email. "There are possible reply briefs to come. There are also other issues being argued — specifically attorneys fees... More generally, there is not a deadline by which time the Supreme Court must rule."

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Baskin previously sued Netflix:Carole Baskin, Joe Exotic’s nemesis, sues Netflix for footage in 'Tiger King 2'

What's Baskin doing now?

Baskin became a star after “Tiger King." Case in point: she competed on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Baskin takes credit for the "Big Cat Public Safety Act," which she promoted and President Joe Biden signed in 2022. It bans future big cat ownership, requiring currently-owned species to be registered with the federal government. It also bans cub petting.

Baskin’s husband, Howard Baskin, announced on the Big Cat Sanctuary website earlier this year that they had moved all their cats from Florida to a wildlife refuge in Arkansas. Its funds will be directed toward conservation plans.

Carole Baskin plans on continuing her advocacy work, according to the post.

Her nemesis, Joe Exotic, is currently in federal prison in Florida, convicted on two counts of hiring someone to kill Baskin, eight counts of falsifying wildlife records and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act after it was discovered that he killed five tigers and sold tigers across state lines.

Contributed: USA TODAY NETWORK. This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA TODAY Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com.