Subscribe'Girls Gone Wild' creator Joe Francis fights for our rights!
"Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis is fighting for our rights!
No, not our right to party. Our constitutional rights.
And today, he filed suit against the Panama City, Fla., legal officials whom he says falsely accused him, violated his civil rights and wrongfully imprisoned him for 11 months.
The suit, filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that a federal judge in Panama City worked in cahoots with the opposing attorney to coerce Francis to pay a ransom before he was let out of solitary confinement.
Francis claims he was falsely imprisoned as part of a civil case that resulted when his company Mantra Films was in the town in 2003 shooting segments for a "GGW" episode involving the spring break antics of college girls.
Speaking today to the Dish Rag, Francis says: "What this judge did was criminal. You cannot, he did, but you cannot put someone in jail in a civil lawsuit and hold them without bail for 11 months. I was denied a trial. No trial, no bail. they just threw me into jail. I had to stay in jail until I paid money to the judge's ex-law partner."
According to Francis, the truth can be found on his website, meetjoefrancis.com. And he wants people to know that he is fighting for their rights as well as his own.
"If they let this action, this settlement stand, one that was executed from jail under duress and was a ransom order, this will single-handedly undermine the entire judicial system in the country," Francis says.
"It will mean that you get in a car wreck, getting a divorce, a judge can tell without a trial, without a jury, no judication or testimony, you pay or go to jail, and then stay put in jail until you pay."
According to Francis' attorney Bob Barnes, this is a landmark case. "This case eats away at the very core of our civil justice system. It's unprecedented. We cannot find a circumstance in the history of the republic where someone was thrown in jail in a civil case so that they could be coerced and held until they wrote a sufficiently large seven-figure check to the judge's former law partner."
So, ask not for whom Joe Francis fights. He fights for us all.
"Joe Francis is fighting for all the average Joes and Jills out there who do not have the resources to fight this, or the access to a law firm," Barnes adds.
What do you think? It should be very interesting to see how this case plays out and what will be uncovered.
Photo: Joe Francis and Khloe Kardashian at Maxim's Biggest Event in Extreme Sports on July 31.
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go joe; once lived in that good ole boys rat hole. stick it to them good!!!
Posted by: lee | August 19, 2008 at 11:51 PM
joe is an american, a patriot and a f.ing hero.
what he does is legal and ok. young chicks are hot, folk like to look at him. i can't wait till he wins- which he will. god is on his side. f.youhaters, just jealous cause you don't have any sack and mad cash. now go bang your couch, sneak eat your cat's feces or do whatever else you do when no one is around. at least joe does his business on camera.
Joe for President- trade a smart shameless schill for the stupid shamefull one we have now.
Posted by: dwayne hoobler | August 20, 2008 at 01:48 AM
Why are you asking us what we think without telling us anything about the veracity of his claims? It's kind of like writing a story saying a a 24 year old male was shot yesterday and then asking what do you think? How can i answer that? Was he holding 3 children hostage? Was he an innocent bystander in a gang war? Why was he shot? What were the conditions of it? If you want people's opinions, give them enough information to allow them to form a reasonable one!
Posted by: sean | August 20, 2008 at 10:34 AM
I hope no judges infringe on his rights because I don't want it to be any harder for those who have workable cases against this sleazy piece of scum to win. I wouldn't have an issue with him making agreements with girls who are sober, and being clear in advance what is or isn't going to happen; but Francis gets girls drunk and then pushes them far beyond what they originally intended to do. Read the story on him and the rape he perpetrated in the LA Times Magazine.
Posted by: skeptikL | August 20, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Wow... my father was a judge.
This is VERY serious.
People might chide this man for exploiting women but it seems like he can also help!
Posted by: wow | August 20, 2008 at 12:10 PM
Francis got fooled into hiring Bernhoft Law to file this suit. The guys represented Wesley Snipes in his IRS troubles. Snipes was acquitted on some counts, but was convicted on enough of the charges for the judge to sentence him to the 3 YEARS in Club Fed the prosecutors recommended. I read Snipes fired them two weeks before his sentencing hearing.
This will get even more comical before he goes to jail.
Posted by: Steve Parsons | August 21, 2008 at 08:45 AM
Joe was Panamaed. It happens so frequently in this crooked little town. The Federal, State, County and City Politico and Judiciary think they are bulletproof. I hope Joe proves them wrong. Joe just may own the Northern District of Florida before this is over. Impeach Judge Richard Smoak now!
Posted by: Panamaed | August 29, 2008 at 09:27 AM