Is it Joe Francis, multimillionaire creator of Girls Gone Wild, who has Gone Wild and Gone All Wrong, or is it the authorities?
Mr. Francis’s troubles started nearly five years ago when he included Panama City Beach, a Panhandle city of white-sand beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, in a highly publicized pay-per-view event from three Spring Break locations. “Girls Gone Wild” camera crews, who usually film college women at bars, parking lots, hotel rooms and other party hangouts, had been to Panama Beach City before, but in 2003 they arrived with unusual hoopla.Mayor Sullivan took exception and law enforcement officials cracked down on acts of lewd behavior, which interfered with the filming. Mr. Francis sued the officials, claiming violation of his First Amendment rights, and got them to settle and back down. But Mr. Francis and some of his crew were arrested when the father of one of two women filmed in a shower scene at the hotel room the filmmakers had rented contacted the county sheriff’s office, saying the girls were minors.
The officials came down hard: They confiscated Mr. Francis’s Ferrari and private jet, announcing cocaine had been found on the plane. Mr. Francis was charged with more than 70 counts, including racketeering, drug trafficking, prostitution and promoting the sexual performance of children.
A judge ended up throwing out all but six of the criminal counts, which revolve around the use of minors in a sexual performance, because of a flawed search warrant. And as it turned out, no cocaine was found on the plane.
But Mr. Francis was also saddled with a civil suit for emotional distress from the two girls, each 17, in the shower scene, along with five women. While he was out on bail in the criminal case, which is pending, the judge overseeing the suit ordered Mr. Francis to return to Florida to mediate the suit. That civil case landed Mr. Francis in jail in April when the women’s lawyers complained he was verbally abusive in negotiations. Judge John Richard Smoak Jr. of the Northern District of Florida held Mr. Francis in civil contempt for not properly participating in mediation and ordered him into custody. Mr. Francis, by then back home in Los Angeles, showed up to do his time four days late, which earned him another contempt order, this time for criminal contempt.
Mr. Francis settled the lawsuit while in jail in Bay County, Fla., but his troubles were not over. Before he could get out, guards found sleeping pills, prescription medication for anxiety and high cholesterol and $700 in cash in his cell, and he soon faced criminal charges for introducing contraband into a detention facility.
Because of the new charges, his bail on the 2003 criminal case was revoked, and bail in the contraband case was denied by Judge Dedee S. Costello of Bay County Circuit Court, who said Mr. Francis had “impugned the integrity of the judicial process.”
Mr. Francis would still be jailed in Florida if not for another twist: Federal officials in Nevada charged him with two counts of tax evasion, so in June he was transferred to Washoe County jail here to answer the new charges. He faces trial on the tax evasion case but denies any wrongdoing.
In fact, he says, he sees the tax evasion case as a godsend. That case keeps him from going back to Bay County, where he claims in court papers he suffered abusive treatment. He remains in Nevada while his lawyers, including the well-known Miami lawyer Roy Black, try to get the Florida charges dismissed. The chance of that happening is slim, his lawyers said, and Mr. Francis is looking at more jail time.