A star on Netflix’s Tiger King claimed their recent arrest in Florida was related to the hit series and Joe Exotic’s case.
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According to TMZ, James Garretson was arrested in Marathon, Florida, earlier this week after local law enforcement discovered he was driving with a suspended license.
In the arrest report, the officers who stopped Garretson stated he was driving in Marathon and had been recognized from a previous encounter with law enforcement. The officers then checked his license and discovered it was suspended.
Garretson was seen driving hours later, and he was pulled over once again. This time, the Tiger King star gave the cops a Florida identification card instead of his driver’s license.
He was then arreste, issued a criminal citation, and a court date. Law enforcement officials revealed he had a previous conviction for driving with a suspended license.
Garretson previously worked for Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, and appeared with him on Tiger King. He later became an FBI informant to help get Maldonado-Passage convicted of trying to hire someone to kill his longtime rival, Carole Baskin.
Garretson told TMZ that the arrest was suspicious to him because one of the officers who pulled him over said to him, “I know [who] you are. I’ve been watching you for a while.”
The cop not only elaborated on the alleged comment. They also didn’t tell Garretson why he was pulled over and arrested. He believed the responding law enforcement officials had a different motive for arresting him.
Garretson stated he believed the arrest was related to his former affiliation with Joe Exotic and the Tiger King series.
He was released from jail after posting a $546 bond.
‘Tiger King’ Star Joe Exotic Recently Announced His Engagement to Fellow Prison Inmate
Garretson’s recent arrest comes less than two months after Joe Exotic announced his engagement to fellow prison inmate Jorge Marquez.
“Meet Jorge Marquez,” the Tiger King star declared on X, formerly Twitter. “He is 33. He is so amazing and is from Mexico.”
Maldonado-Passage then stated that he is now on a “quest” to get married in prison and get Marquez his asylum. If they can’t achieve asylum status, he and Marquez will leave the U.S. when they are released from prison.
“Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago,” Maldonado-Passage added.
Maldonado-Passage was previously married to Dillon Passage. The former spouses called it quits in 2021 after three years of marriage.
“To answer the main question the public wants to know, yes, Joe and I are seeking a divorce,” Passage shared in an Instagram after the news broke about the split. “This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but Joe and I both understand that this situation isn’t fair to either of us. It’s something that neither of us was expecting, but we are going to take it day by day.”
Passage added that he and Maldonado-Passage were on good terms.
Before Passage, Maldonado-Passage was married to Travis Maldonado, who died in 2017 after accidentally shooting himself.