Tycoon defends himself in ads

The Girls Gone Wild founder pulls the president's photo into his case.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 24, 2007

PENSACOLA - The smiling founder of the Girls Gone Wild video empire stands shoulder to shoulder with President Bush, the White House in the background, in a series of online advertisements running on newspaper Web sites from Pensacola to Tallahassee.

Joe Francis, 34, engineered the ad campaign to gain support from any audience that will listen to his twisted legal story, which began in Panama City Beach in 2003 and now has him in a Nevada jail cell.

"Marketing is what I do best," Francis told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Francis, who makes at least $29-million a year from his videos of young women baring their breasts and in other sexually provocative situations, says he's now in a marketing fight for his own freedom.

"I have been vilified. I have almost been treated like an enemy combatant," he said, explaining why he chose to feature a picture of himself in the ads taken during a 2004 White House visit - a campaign donor's perk.

His attorney, Miami uber-lawyer Roy Black, jokes that Francis might be less self-destructive if he were classified as an enemy combatant.

"That way he wouldn't have access to a phone," said Black, whose list of famous clients includes William Kennedy Smith and Rush Limbaugh.

"Joe and I have had numerous yelling contests over this, and I keep telling him how he's screwing up his case." Black said. "I'm sure the state and federal prosecutors are going to use some of the things he says against him."

Francis, who became famous in the late 1990s after he began filming spring break debauchery, has been in jail since April, when he was cited for contempt after yelling at attorneys during mediation in a federal lawsuit brought by women who were underage when his production company filmed them in 2003.

That lawsuit has since been settled, but Francis violated probation on criminal charges related to the 2003 filming when he was charged with having contraband - $700 and prescription anti-anxiety medication - in the Bay County Jail.

Federal officials then extradited him to Nevada to face tax evasion charges.

Francis could bail out of jail on the federal charges, but would face extradition back to Florida to face trial on four felony charges related to using minors in a sexual performances and two misdemeanor prostitution charges. The charges are all that remain in an original 73-count indictment in the 2003 spring break filming.

Francis would rather stay in jail in Nevada than return to Florida.

[Last modified October 24, 2007, 00:11:59]