A U.S. assistant prosecuting attorney is asking that a former Festus-area chimpanzee caretaker face “significant punishment” after federal agents allegedly found the woman secretly harboring a female chimp, according to a federal court filing
U.S. assistant attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday, July 23, that Tonia Haddix, who gained notoriety in the HBO documentary “Chimp Crazy,” has ignored court orders and committed a felony by not registering a chimp with local authorities.
“Defendant has shown no remorse for her criminal conduct and has continued to challenge and defy this court’s authority,” Goldsmith said in his memorandum. “She should face significant punishment as a result.”
Haddix was the last owner of seven chimps – Tonka, Crystal, Mikayla, Tammy, Connor, Candy and Kerry – who lived at the Festus-area facility formerly known as Chimparty, which provided chimps for parties, television ads and movies. The chimps previously belonged to Connie Casey, who transferred ownership of the animals to Haddix in an attempt to end a lawsuit PETA filed against her in 2016.
During an unannounced visit, federal authorities uncovered that Haddix was keeping a chimp in the same basement cage at her Sunrise Beach home where she previously hid a male chimp named Tonka, who she claimed had died after she was ordered to turn over him and six other chimps as part of a prolonged legal battle with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, according to a memorandum.
On April 14, U.S. pretrial services officers went to Haddix’s Sunrise Beach home in Camden County, where she also operates a roadside zoo. Haddix’s husband, Jerry Aswegan, met the agents and delayed their entry to the home, court documents indicate.
Aswegan allegedly told the agents that Haddix was in the basement feeding monkeys before she emerged from the basement wearing pajamas and a hairnet, according to court documents.
Haddix first took the agents to the home’s adjacent roadside zoo before allowing them back into the house. When the agents were allowed into the home’s basement, they found an empty caged enclosure, court records said.
However, the agents also allegedly saw fresh dung, blankets, an empty Gatorade bottle and half-eaten sucker in the fly-filled cage, according to the documents.
Based on those findings, Western District Court Chief Magistrate Judge Willie J. Epps Jr. signed a search warrant on July 7. Special agents executed the warrant on July 9, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture, court records show.
The agents allegedly found and removed the female chimpanzee from the basement cage that day, according to court documents.
“Tonia Haddix has again defied court orders and locked a highly social chimpanzee in a tiny basement cage, without the companionship of other chimpanzees, appropriate care, or even the ability to feel sunlight on her skin,” said Brittany Peet, a PETA lawyer. “This person clearly won’t stop hurting animals unless and until she’s facing a long stay behind bars herself, and PETA is calling for the court to issue her the harshest possible sentence.”
Lawyers listed for Haddix in court papers did not respond to a phone call and email from the Leader.
The memorandum detailing how the hidden female chimp was found was filed the day after Haddix appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri after being arrested by U.S. Marshals on July 19 in Camden County.
St. Louis County Judge Brian May issued an order on July 14 for Haddix and Aswegan to be arrested. The judge issued the order after holding the two in contempt for allegedly failing for a year and a half to turn over financial documents, according to court documents.
A federal judge on Wednesday found Aswegan in contempt of court for failing to turn over the financial records.
Aswegan will be fined $50 per day until he complies, and he must reimburse PETA for the attorneys’ fees and costs related to enforcing the subpoena, which was served as part of PETA’s efforts to collect $224,404.24 in attorneys’ fees and costs Haddix had been ordered to pay after she lied to the court about Tonka the chimpanzee’s whereabouts and disobeyed a court order to surrender him to PETA.
Aswegan had not been arrested as of Wednesday.
“Tonia Haddix was the villain of ‘Chimp Crazy’ and Tonka the chimpanzee’s story, but Jerry Aswegan is just as responsible for every day Tonka spent locked in a basement, unable to exercise, set eyes on another chimpanzee, or feel the sun on his skin,” Peet said in a July 23 statement. “PETA looks to the courts to ensure that Aswegan and Haddix are on the hook for every cent that PETA spent to find Tonka and move him to the sanctuary where he’s thriving at last."
Haddix violated the terms of her bond and an agreement in a civil lawsuit by keeping a mature female chimpanzee in her basement. A decree in PETA’s civil Endangered Species Act case said Haddix was not allowed to possess chimpanzees, according to court documents.
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture terminated Haddix’s federal license, banning her from selling USDA-regulated animals, including primates, and from operating her roadside zoo in Sunrise Beach, according to the department’s documents.
On March 31, Haddix pleaded to two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, admitting to lying in court and court filings about the death of Tonka, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office previously reported.
Judge Patricia L. Cohen set a bond revocation hearing for Haddix to be held today, July 24, in front of Chief District Judge Stephen R. Clark, court records said.
Haddix is scheduled to be sentenced in her criminal case on Aug. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, according to court documents.
The legal battle between Haddix and PETA appeared to have concluded July 2021 when a federal judge ordered Haddix to give up ownership of the seven chimps and allow PETA to transfer them to the Center of Great Apes in Wauchula, Fla. The order came after the judge ruled Haddix had not followed a consent decree she had reached with PETA, which would have allowed her to retain ownership and care for Crystal, Mikayla and Tonka.
Crystal, Mikayla, Tammy, Connor, Candy and Kerry were transferred from the Festus-area facility to the Florida sanctuary on July 28, 2021. Tonka also was supposed to be transferred that day, but Haddix said Tonka died May 24, 2021, after suffering a stroke or heart attack.
Haddix had testified that Aswegan cremated Tonka’s body.
However, in June 2022, Tonka was discovered alive and living with Haddix at her home in Sunrise Beach near Lake of the Ozarks. The chimp was then transported to the Save the Chimps Sanctuary in Florida.
PETA asked a St. Louis County judge last year to seize property and assets from her companies. Haddix never responded, so a judge ruled in PETA’s favor, court records show.
Haddix and Aswegan, who is also involved with her companies, allegedly didn’t turn over required financial documents in the case despite repeated orders from the court, according to court documents.
St. Louis County Judge Brian May ordered Haddix and Aswegan to appear at a hearing on July 14 to provide a reason for not providing the documentation. After neither of them appeared, he issued the order for their arrest, court records said.
May ruled Haddix and Aswegan are in contempt of court and must pay $100 and be jailed each day until they comply with the court’s orders. The judge also approved an order of body attachment, instructing law enforcement to detain the couple, according to court documents.
The two are also liable for all of PETA’s attorney fees and costs in pursuing the case, court records said.
Haddix and Aswegan are scheduled to appear for a show cause hearing on Aug. 5 in St. Louis County Court, court documents show.
Click to read past Leader coverage on the events that led to "Chimp Crazy."