Joseph “Joe Unique” Maldonado-Passage grew to become a family identify in 2020 when Netflix’s Tiger King was all anybody might speak about. Now, the documentary star is ready to see what’s subsequent.
The 61-year-old is at present incarcerated on the Federal Medical Middle in Fort Value, Texas. Come 2025, nonetheless, he may be a free man as soon as once more if the court docket overturns his conviction for an alleged murder-for-hire plot on rival Carole Baskin.
“My greatest purpose is just not solely to get out of right here and transfer on and dwell a life,” Maldonado-Passage instructed Us Weekly completely about his plans if launched subsequent yr. “I need to testify in entrance of Congress concerning the jail and justice system [and] what actually goes on in right here.”
Life for Maldonado-Passage proper now could be “powerful,” he admitted to Us.
“I’m in a medical facility. A part of the roof is lacking, and we now have plastic baggage above our beds taped to the ceiling to information water out the window. Within the final week, I caught 15 rats on sticky boards below my mattress. Now 140 of us have scabies,” the Tiger King star shared. “I run a soup kitchen in right here. That’s one thing Carole and no one [else] can take away from me, that I gave again to society.”
Joe Unique Netflix/YouTube
It’s been 4 years since Tiger King grew to become a sensation, however Maldonado-Passage not too long ago watched the docuseries for the primary time — and he wasn’t too thrilled.
“We’re engaged on a lawsuit, so the jail let my attorneys are available in with it on a pc. I used to be disgusted with the way in which [director] Eric Goode portrayed [the situation],” he shared to Us. “Carole and I by no means had a lethal battle happening — it was blown out of proportion. I by no means noticed Carole’s face till my trial.”
Drama apart, Maldonado-Passage is wanting ahead to placing something with Baskin behind him. “I don’t need that to outline [me] anymore,” he stated.
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Whereas nothing is assured, Maldonado-Passage — who’s coping with a reasonably severe well being battle — stated that he’s hopeful to be launched subsequent yr.
“My prostate most cancers is in remission, [but] they consider I’ve most cancers in my left lung. I’ve to take it because it comes,” he stated. “I nonetheless have religion that I’m going to stroll out of right here — I simply have to dwell for the subsequent 5 – 6 months and hope for the perfect.”
As for what Maldonado-Passage misses essentially the most?
“My music, my nonprofit stuff that I did with sick youngsters, and feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he admitted. “That was my life. I did that my entire life.”