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Don Lewis’s daughter is seeking legal counsel after a sheriff says that Tiger King‘s Carole Baskin forged the will. Donna Pettis spoke to TMZ about the new information that has come to light about the will. She told them that the news of the forgery basically confirms what she and her sisters suspected back when their father disappeared. Problems for Pettis and her family stem from the initial ruling that the will was legitimate, but they’re willing to start up the fight again. She claimed that four other experts have deemed the will a forgery since the initial ruling. Now, the family is weighing the option of hiring both a civil and criminal attorney to handle the case. Lewis was legally declared dead in 2002, but the popularity of the Netflix documentary has made a lot of people involved take up renewed interest in the circumstances surrounding Lewis’ death.
A few days ago the report surfaced from the Hillsborough County sheriff that an expert deemed the will to be forged. Chad Chronister is the sheriff in question and he told 10 Tampa Bay about the new development. Social media was rampant with speculation that Baskin had a hand in her husband’s disappearance after Tiger King became popular.
“They called in some experts to say that the will was a forgery and I had already told them that two months ago,” Chronister mentioned. “They had two experts deem it 100% a forgery. That’s the only reason. There’s no recourse. A judge deemed it valid. So the civil side of it, with the execution of the will [and] dispersement of the funds is one thing. But then you have the criminal side which is unable to prosecute.”
Before all of this Baskin was in the spotlight again for getting ownership of the GW Zoo that Joe Exotic used to own. He’s currently in jail serving a 22-year sentence. In 2016, he was found accountable for paying Baskin $1 million due to trademark infringement. To evade detection, the reality star’s mother, Shirley M. Schreibvogel had the land transferred over to her.
“Schreibvogel later admitted under oath that the zoo land was transferred to her by Joe Maldonado to remove it from the reach of creditors, including BCR, should BCR win its Florida lawsuit,” the complaint detailed. “Schreibvogel also admitted in 2015, via a confession of judgment she entered into to resolve a lawsuit filed against he by the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee overseeing Joe Maldonado’s personal bankruptcy estate, that the zoo land was fraudulently transferred to her by Joe Maldonado in 2011 to avoid his creditors.”
What do you think happened with Baskin’s husband? Let us know in the comments!
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