2015-03-15 Carole Baskin‘s Diary

Carole Baskins Diary

Joe Schreibvogel Lawsuit Update

Howard wrote this for our supporters, but it’s a great summary of work that has taken a lot of our time:

LAWSUIT UPDATE By Howard Baskin 3/17/15

It has been a busy six months since our last update. So it is time to let our supporters know what is happening in our efforts to collect our judgment against Joe Schreibvogel and his zoo. We view Joe as one of the most notorious exploiters of tiger cubs in the world.

By way of review, after we won the $1mm+ judgment in early 2013, Joe had three individuals associated with him and/or the GW Park incorporate a new GW Zoo. Joe’s “husband” John Finlay became President. This is the same John Finlay who in depositions in our lawsuit said he did no work at the Park, he slept until noon and then went fishing or played video games.

Joe filed personal bankruptcy. Then he had the old GW Park file bankruptcy and filed to dissolve the GW Park corporation. Meantime, he claimed that almost all of the assets of the old Park were now owned by the new Zoo.

There are certain conditions under which your debts are not discharged in bankruptcy. The one we are aware of is if you lie sufficiently in your bankruptcy filing. Joe ended up signing a consent agreement that says his personal debts are NOT discharged by this bankruptcy. This means we can continue to go after his income and assets indefinitely in our efforts to collect our judgment against him personally. So one outcome of his having used our name for his traveling show and losing the lawsuit is that he has to avoid ever owning anything in his name because we can go after it.

The Park bankruptcy was simply thrown out by the court. So currently we are suing the new Zoo to obtain the Park assets that the Zoo claims to own. There have been two very interesting and positive developments in our collection efforts.

JOE INHERITANCE OF KANSAS LAND

When you file bankruptcy you are obligated by law to list all your assets. In his personal bankruptcy Joe conveniently failed to list his residual interest in a large tract of farm land with mineral rights in Kansas. The land was owned by Joe’s maternal grandfather. Joe’s mother has a life estate interest, and when she dies the land goes to Joe and his siblings. To make a long story short, we discovered the residual interest Joe had failed to disclose and advised the Bankruptcy Trustee. The Bankruptcy Trustee then took this residual interest from Joe and sold it to us. So we now own Joe’s inheritance.

One humorous part is that Joe thinks that if he dies before his mother we will not get his interest in the land. He rants about this repeatedly. Most recently he talked about having his mother on life support for as long as it took for him to die if she ever needed it. However, he is wrong. As a result of legal actions we have taken, we do get his interest even if he dies before his mother. So, we chuckle every time he rants about how proud he is that he will die first and keep us from getting his inheritance.

ZOO LAND

The other positive development relates to the land the Zoo sits on. The day we sued him in 2011 Joe personally owned the land. Apparently anticipating that he might end up losing the lawsuit and filing personal bankruptcy, in the days just after we sued him he transferred the land to his mother. He later claimed under oath that when he did that he did not know he had been sued because he had not been served. However, BEFORE he transferred the land to his mother, he wrote a Facebook post entitled “Shit has hit the fan” announcing we had sued him. One more lie under oath.

The Bankruptcy Trustee sued his mother Shirley to bring the land back into the bankruptcy estate. Sadly, Shirley seems to believe Joe’s lies, and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars funding his zoos and his lawsuits. We have evidence that indicates that she, like Joe, has blatantly lied under oath – this apple does not seem to fall far from the tree.

Presumably realizing the Trustee would win the lawsuit to take the land from her, Shirley has agreed to pay the Trustee the appraised value of the land, $63,000. Since we are the largest creditor, a significant portion of that payment to the bankruptcy estate will come to us.

Joe has claimed online that we will never see a penny of recovery. We now own his inheritance in the Kansas land, likely worth over $100,000 at some point, and we will receive a portion of the $63,000 that his mother is paying into the personal bankruptcy estate. Is that more than a penny, Joey?

HEARING ON ASSETS (HOA)

The most recent event is what is called a Hearing on Assets in his personal bankruptcy. While Joe seems to refuse to believe it, I handle the decisions related to the lawsuits and always have, not Carole. So historically I have gone out to Oklahoma to attend proceedings like this.

But in early January I had open heart surgery to replace a mitral valve that has been a problem for many years. While I am now almost fully recovered, I was not up for the trip, so Carole attended the hearing. Joe’s apparent obsessive hatred for Carole seems to have affected his demeanor. When I was there, he never got so emotionally worked up that his attorney had to take him out of the room and calm him down. But it only took seven minutes for this to happen the first time at this hearing. And that was not the only time. Temper, temper Joe.

There were a number of humorous moments as Joe told his lies with his face twitching (his version of Pinocchio’s nose). But the funniest was when he was asked if it was him singing the music videos he has been producing, claiming he is a country western singer. He got all worked up and refused to answer. Now, if he were the singer, why in the world would he refuse to answer? So refusing to answer was about the same as admitting he does not sing the songs.

Any idiot who hears Joe talk and hears the songs would know it is not Joe singing. Except, of course, the dozen or so idiots who listen to his weeknight “internet tv show” that apparently believe he sings the songs. And, of course, we know from his accounting records that he (or the Zoo) pays singer Vince Johnson thousands of dollars to sing each song that Joe then lip syncs. Compare the voice on Joe’s songs to the ones on Vince’s website: http://ourstage.com/profile/theclintonjohnsonband/songs

It was also comical watching him repeatedly claim he works for free out of dedication to the animals, even mustering big crocodile tears at times, poor thing. Meantime, the Park records show that for years he has used the Park as his own personal piggy bank paying his personal expenses, including jewelry and plastic surgery. At the HOA Joe said he is the “pretty face” of the Zoo.

Perhaps it is to his credit that he did not claim it was his real face. One past employee reported that Joe regularly took cash out of the register to take his lovers gambling and partying.

Back in October 2014 Joe broadcast that he was not going to post anything negative any more. That sure did not last long. The night after the HOA he was his usual self, making childish and sexually crude comments about Carole. One wonders if someday he will decide to operate at a maturity level above a six year old – assuming he can.

THE FUTURE

After we won the judgment, we offered Joe generous terms to put an end to the expensive legal proceedings. We offered to let him pay his debt to us over 30 years, like a mortgage, to create reasonable, manageable monthly payments. The conditions were that he had to stop breeding, taking animals offsite for display, and public contact with the animals.

He claimed that he could not afford the payments. But for many months since then he has been paying legal fees that very likely exceed the amount of the monthly payments we suggested. And, as noted above, in addition to the legal fees he pays thousands to Vince Johnson to sing his songs so Joe can lip sync and lie as he claims to be a country western singer.

Joe claims his Zoo is dedicated to the memory of his deceased brother and that Joe dedicates his life to the animals. When you look at his behavior, the only thing Joe and his Zoo appear to be dedicated to are Joe’s ego and his apparently desperate need for attention. Joe appears to be so obsessed with his hatred of Carole and so determined not to pay his debt that he is willing to pay attorneys instead of the debt and risk the future of his Zoo.

And how much does he care about the Zoo, his supposed memorial to his brother, and the animals? Last October he said that if the outcome of the lawsuit was the Zoo being dismantled, Joe would simply move down the road and breed more tigers. Does that show love and concern for the future of the animals currently at the zoo, or concern for the memorial to his brother that the zoo is supposed to represent? Sure does not sound like it. He would rather see the Zoo collapse than accept a reasonable proposal to pay his debt. We can only guess that this disregard for the future of the zoo is because agreeing to pay his debt might bruise his delicate little ego.

If the Zoo had a real, independent Board of Directors, they would likely stop Joe from spending money on himself and his silly self serving lip synced music videos. Instead they would think about how to handle the judgment in a way that would provide the most certain future for the animals. But with the Board being composed of John Finlay and Joe’s cronies Gary Douglas and Tracy Shultz, the animals appear to have no advocate to protect them from Joe making all the decisions based solely on his own ego and hate for Carole. So, the lawsuit will continue with the Zoo paying thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees on top of Joe’s personal expenses.

The one person who could single-handedly make a difference of course is John Finlay, the President. Finlay walked out on Joe back in August after many years as Joe’s “husband.” Then, according to reports, he came back to the Zoo for a meeting carrying a firearm and was charged with physically assaulting Joe and another worker. Despite the brief show of independence, Finlay seems to be back again as Joe’s pawn. Fear of big, bad, firearm brandishing Joe? Who knows? But we think his continued apparent allegiance to Joe and Joe’s lies is a decision John will come to personally regret as the lawsuit progresses.

There is no way to predict how things will evolve. But, if the ultimate outcome is Joe abandoning the animals and moving down the road, perhaps that would be the best solution for the animals. BCR does not have the capacity to take over the GW Zoo, but maybe one of the large animal welfare organizations would. Their tours could tell the story of how for so many years tiger cubs and other animals were mistreated, but were now in good hands.

Maybe that will be Joe’s “legacy” – thousands of future visitors being told how for years Joe shamed his brother with how he treated animals, but thankfully the animals are now in the hands of a large animal welfare organization and well treated. And there will be plenty of stories to tell. As more and more people have come to work at the Zoo and are either mistreated by Joe or see how the animals are mistreated, we get more and more stories from them. One current worker has been particularly informative.

We are told by past employees that one current employee in particular would take much better care of the animals if Joe were gone, but remains Joe’s lackey as long as Joe is there brandishing his handgun and threatening people. If Joe left and the people there who care about animals brought in someone who knew how to use the money Joe spends on attorneys and lip synced videos to market the Zoo as the real sanctuary it could be, the world could be a different place for these animals. That could be another possible outcome.

The court process moves slowly, but from time to time I will post updates like this here. In the meantime, thanks as always to the many of you who have generously supported our efforts to stop exploitation of tiger cubs!

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story. The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story. My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.