The star of HBO's "Chimp Crazy" will spend almost four years in federal prison for lying about a chimp named Tonka.
"I hope you wake up and learn that if you violate the law, there are consequences and they are serious," U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark told Tonia Haddix on Thursday as he handed down the 46-month sentence. It was well above the one year and one day her attorneys had requested, and more than federal sentencing guidelines advised.
Haddix will remain in the Phelps County jail until the federal Bureau of Prisons determines where she will serve her sentence. She has been in custody since July 19, after federal agents found a mature female chimpanzee in a cage on her property near the Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County. The discovery meant Haddix was in violation of court orders and the terms of her bond.
The charges
The felony charges stemmed from a complicated civil case involving the Missouri Primate Foundation, which once bred chimpanzees for the entertainment industry, and the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA accused the foundation of housing Tonka and six other chimps in a series of "barren and unsanitary enclosures," which violated the terms of the Endangered Species Act.
A deal reached in October 2020 required Haddix, who was running the facility in Festus, to surrender the seven chimps living there. But when the time came in 2021 for the chimps to be transferred to the Center for Great Apes in Florida, Haddix falsely claimed that one of them, Tonka, had died.
Tonka was later found alive in a cage in a basement of Haddix's Camden County property. He's now living at a different chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida.
Haddix admitted that she lied when she submitted a sworn statement in August 2021 saying that Tonka had died and that she had been given his cremated remains. Haddix also admitted that she lied under oath during a January 2022 court hearing about whether she should be held in contempt for not turning Tonka over to the sanctuary.
The obstruction of justice charge stems from a 2021 motion to dismiss the ongoing civil case against Haddix in which she again claimed Tonka was dead.
Brittany Peet, PETA's general counsel for Captive Animal Law Enforcement, said the group was pleased with the sentence.
"Unlike the chimpanzees she locked in her basement. Tonia Haddix is guilty, and she had a choice of whether she ended up locked behind bars, as she is now, a choice that she denied those chimpanzees," she said.
PETA is still working through the courts to collect about $225,000 in legal fees related to the civil case. Both Haddix and her husband Jerry Aswegan have been ordered to appear in a state courtroom in St. Louis County on Aug. 12 to explain why they have not turned over financial documents or sat for depositions in that matter.
Clark also ordered Haddix to set up a payment plan for those attorneys fees as a condition of her sentence. Peet called that a "great" outcome.
The sentence
The 46-month sentence marked the end of an extended back-and-forth between court officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys and Clark.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys had originally agreed that federal guidelines meant Haddix should serve no more than 16 months. But pre-sentence officers, who make sentencing recommendations in federal court, called for her to spend at least 51 months, or a little more than four years, behind bars.
After Haddix violated the terms of her release, prosecutors asked to be released from the terms of the deal and agreed with the longer sentence.
"Defendant has shown no remorse for her criminal conduct, and has continued to challenge and defy this Court's authority, and she should face a significant punishment as a result," Assistant U.S. attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed July 23.
Haddix's attorneys had initially been prepared to ask Clark for a sentence of probation. But they adjusted that request to a year and a day after the bond violations.
There is no denying that Haddix made bad decisions, said defense attorney Justin Gelfand. But the idea of justice needed to be tempered with mercy, he said.
"For her entire life, humans have been unpredictable, unsafe and caused her harm," he said. "Animals have given her unconditional love. She lied and lied and lied, all in an effort not to give them up. The motivation was benign, if not misguided."
Clark eventually ruled that the guidelines called for a minimum two-year sentence. But he had seemed willing from the beginning of the criminal case to go above and beyond what those guidelines would advise.
On the day Haddix pleaded guilty, Clark expressed skepticism that she had truly taken responsibility for her crimes. On Thursday, he said that Haddix had acted like she was wearing "virtual reality goggles, and never took them off."
Haddix, he said, "has wilfully violated the law and done so with glee."
Gelfand said after the hearing that while the sentence was more than he had hoped for, it was not as severe as he had originally feared.
And while he said he believed there might be grounds for appeal, "Ms. Haddix is somebody who wants to put this behind her, wants to move on with her life and wants to focus on what she cares about most, which ultimately is living an otherwise law-abiding life. "
Goldsmith called the sentence "appropriate and proper."
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