Tiger King + Libel: Video Log and Web Site Post Aren’t Covered by Florida’s Defamation Retraction Statute
From McQueen v. Baskin, decided by the Florida Court of Appeal (Judge Matthew Lucas, joined by Judges Darryl Casanueva and Susan Rothstein-Youakim):
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….
In the 1990s Carole Baskin and her then-husband “Don” Lewis operated Wildlife on EasyStreet, a big cat sanctuary, an enterprise which would later become known as Big Cat Rescue. Anne McQueen was employed as Mr. Lewis’ personal assistant.
In August 1997, Mr. Lewis disappeared. His whereabouts, or whether he is still alive, remains unknown to this day.
Not long after Mr. Lewis’ disappearance, one of his daughters filed a conservatorship petition in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court. In that petition Mr. Lewis’ daughter sought to appoint Ms. McQueen as a conservator of Mr. Lewis’ property. Disputes arose during the course of the conservatorship proceedings. Ms. Baskin alleged that Ms. McQueen “improperly transferred real property, mortgages, and tax certificates.” For her part, Ms. McQueen filed a petition for an injunction.
After a year of litigation, the parties entered into a stipulation which disposed of the property in dispute. As part of that settlement, Ms. McQueen received a $50,000 payment for all her potential claims in the conservatorship litigation including a “libel and slander claim” against Ms. Baskin. Ms. Baskin was also obligated to issue a written apology to Ms. McQueen, which, in pertinent part, 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.” {In her briefing, Ms. Baskin points out that the settlement agreement in the conservatorship litigation expressly disclaimed being an admission of any kind of liability.}
Unfortunately, neither the settlement nor the apology ended the acrimony.
Events took a turn in 2020 when Netflix aired a television series entitled, “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” The subject matter of the series was apparently as sensational as its title, and although it centered on a supposed rival of Big Cat Rescue (a gentleman who went by the monikers “Joe Exotic” and “The Tiger King”), some episodes featured discussions about Mr. Lewis’ disappearance. One episode in particular included footage of interviews with Ms. McQueen, which, Ms. Baskin maintains, “proliferated false and baseless rumors that Baskin killed Lewis and disposed of his remains in various horrific ways.” While the show was airing, Ms. McQueen also appeared in a YouTube interview with “Ripper Jack Media,” in wh
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