Judge SLAPPs Joe Francis, rules Playboy model's claims relevant to 'treatment of women'

By Eriq Gardner

"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis has been given a SLAPP by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in a defamation case that stemmed from him allegedly punching a Playboy model.

Former Playmate of the Year Jayde Nicole was sued by the GGW mogul after she told TMZ that Francis "grabbed my hair and he punched me in the face ... he pushed me to the ground ... he kicked me in my stomach and my chest..."

Francis claimed Nicole had libeled and slandered him, as well as painted him in a false light. The case was somewhat ironic considering the number of times Francis has been on the receiving end of lawsuits by girls claiming exploitation.

Now judge Mark Mooney has granted Nicole's special motion to strike Francis' complaint (anti-SLAPP motions allow courts to dispose of cases on free speech grounds if they might squelch discussion of matters of public interest). Mooney ruled that Francis is "a public figure" whose treatment of young women (and the public discussion of that treatment) makes Nicole's allegations relevant to a matter of public interest. From the judge's ruling:

Joe Francis acknowledges he's 'a difficult client'

By Matthew Belloni

Everyone's least favorite softcore porn magnate copped a plea today to tax evasion charges, agreeing to pay $249,705 to hopefully end his criminal case and avoid more jail time. But Joe Francis gets some credit from us for throwing a shout-out to his latest group of attorneys in the statement he released:

"I want to thank Brad Brian, Greg Weingart, Susan Nash and the lawyers at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLC in Los Angeles, and David Houston in Reno.  The one thing I’ve learned about myself during this process is that I can be a difficult client, but they are a fantastic group of brilliant legal minds who recognized the truth when they saw it and had the passion to care about what happened to me."

Francis hasn't alway had the best relationship with his legal counsel, so it's nice to see him give credit where it's no doubt due.

Joe Francis accuses his own employees of going wild

By Eriq Gardner

"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis is alleging another wild conspiracy.

Francis has faced major tax troubles over the last few years, including a felony case that accused the softcore porn mogul of deducting more than $20 million in phony business expenses. Now, after allegedly hiring investigators to look into the matter, Francis has fingered the cause of those troubles: an elaborate scheme run by his company's chief financial officer, Michael Barrett, the company's chief technology officer, Roman Pelikh, and the company's vice president of operations, Will L'Heureux.

According to a press release trumpeting a new multi-million dollar lawsuit filed against these individuals in Los Angeles County Superior Court, "the three went wild, filing and then approving phony invoices they wrote themselves."

Francis knows a thing or two about wild court cases. He once filed a whopper of a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy between a U.S. District Judge, the parents of underaged women, the judge's former law partners, and government officials in both the U.S. and Panama. He also accused his own lawyers of going wild too.

In his latest case, Francis has turned on three of the highest executives at Mantra Films, keeper of the "GGW" franchise. He alleges the three set up shadow companies including WMR Marketing (named after the first names of the perpetrators), CPI Telecom, Western PC Professionals and Office Trade Center. Francis says he has filed a police report, but no arrests have been made.

Joe Francis finds new lawyers, targets 'Girls Gone Mobile'

By Eriq Gardner

Joe Francis obviously loves wild girls. Perhaps as much as he adores lawsuits.

We love bizarre legal filings too, so we were saddened by the news last January that the softcore porn mogul and his lawyer had separated from each other. 

That divorce offered its own entertainment—who fired whom—but without a lawyer, Francis couldn't file lawsuits like the one alleging a conspiracy between a U.S. district judge, the parents of underage women, and the judge's former law partners in a plot to entrap him in a $70 million legal heist in Panama City. 

Where to go for our legal kicks if not for ol' Joe?

No fear. Evidently, Francis has hired a new legal team at Keats McFarland & Wilson, and it hasn't taken long for Francis to put his new lawyers to work.

Francis' Mantra Films has filed a lawsuit against several mobile content businesses and wireless providers, including giants AT&T and Verizon, for allegedly distributing content under a "Girls Gone Mobile" banner that allegedly violates Mantra's trademark on "Girls Gone Wild." 

The complaint is sketchy on the details of the business arrangements, but we'll give it some points for including the NC-17-rated trademark applications as evidentiary exhibits.

Joe Francis vs. his lawyers: Who, dare we ask, has gone wilder?

By Eriq Gardner

It's been awhile since we checked in on "the Bobs," the pair of Milwaukee attorneys who called themselves "legal mercenaries" to Portfolio magazine before hopping on a plane to hit it big in Hollywood. Last year, we wondered whether anybody in the entertainment community would bother putting Robert Bernhoft and Robert Barnes on their lunch schedule. 

Well, the Los Angeles Daily Journal today prints a front-page update on the Bobs in which disgruntled client Joe Francis of "Girls Gone Wild" fame calls them "swindlers," saying "The only reason they wanted me was to mooch off me and open up an L.A. office...The Bernhofts are the Paris Hilton of lawyers — just to be famous, not to do anything."

Them's fighting words. Bernhoft responded swiftly to the article, invoking the dreaded D-word in a statement to LA Observed. "Today’s Los Angeles Daily Journal story on Bernhoft Law’s representation of Joe Francis is ambush journalism at its worst. It turns a false premise – that Joe Francis allegedly dismissed Bernhoft Law for poor performance in Francis' tax case – into a lazy, false, and defamatory hit job."

True, THR, Esq. favorite Francis sees a lot of conspiracies in this world. And if Francis did ditch the Bobs, it wouldn't be the first time they've been let go without really being fired. After the two got Wesley Snipes acquitted on the major charges in the actor's tax evasion case, they were allegedly dismissed because they said they didn't want to be held responsible for Snipes' maximum prison term sentence on the misdemeanor counts.

 

But the real question here is, who cares? We're surprised the DJ gave Francis, not exactly a reputable critic of legal service providers, a venue to trash his attorneys. Lots of starry-eyed lawyers set up shop in LA hoping to land celebrity clients. And plenty of those lawyers end up getting kicked to the curb by those same celebrities, often for reasons that have little to do with the quality of the representation. 

 

That said, Joe Francis is a special breed. The Bobs probably should have known that when you take on a guy like Francis, you're probably going to end up as humiliated as the women in his videos. 

Joe Francis Complaint Alleges Panama City Judge and Former Law Partners Gone Wild

By Eriq Gardner

Looks like "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis is getting tired of being dragged into court. The public-nudity mogul has unleashed one whopper of a lawsuit alleging  a conspiracy between a U.S. District Judge, the parents of underaged women, the judge's former law partners representing the parents, and Bay County government officials. Francis seeks to rescind a settlement agreement he claims he was coerced into signing.

Here's the complaint, filed yesterday in Los Angeles County Court yesterday. Francis also held a splashy press conference to announce he hopes that Californian jurisprudence swipes down "southern justice gone awry." The complaint even introduces his case by saying his injustice is the same kind of tale that "Nina Simone sang about; William Faulkner wrote about it; historians teach about it."

Enough of the buildup.

Francis got in trouble when his film crew taped 17-year-old women in Panama City in 2003. He claims they entrapped him by pretending to be 18 or older.

'Girls Gone Wild's' Joe Francis Now Picks a Fight with Steve Wynn

Posted by Eriq Gardner

"Girls Gone Wild" visionary Joe Francis just can't stay out of court. This time, he may have picked on the wrong guy.

Francis allegedly has big gambling debts. Earlier this summer, he was sued by Wynn Las Vegas after billionaire Steve Wynn says he spotted Francis $2.8 million and was only repaid $800,000 of that.  Probably ignoring advice from his lawyer, Francis then publicly trashed Wynn, dismissing his debt.

"The Wynn Hotel has chosen not to honor its agreement to apply certain discounts to balances they have already been paid for," Francis told the Associated Press. He added that he planned on "exposing how exactly Mr. Wynn deceives his high-end customers."

Oops. Now Wynn is hitting back, with a new lawsuit for $10,000 in damages for this alleged defamation. The lawsuit was filed by Wynn on Monday in Nevada district court.

'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Faces Significant Tax Trial

Posted by Eriq Gardner

The trouble doesn't stop for 'Girls Gone Wild' impresario Joe Francis. He's out of jail but earlier this week he was sued in yet another exploitation civil lawsuit. And that's the least of his problems.

Yesterday, he appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to answer charges that he he deducted more than $20 million in phony business expenses on his corporate returns during 2002 and 2003. Francis plead not guilty to the felony tax evasion charges.

Francis is being represented by the right kind of lawyer. Robert Bernhoft got Wesley Snipes off big-time earlier in the year. "This ain't 'Girls Gone Wild.' This is the IRS gone wild," says Bernhoft.

Not a bad line. The trial is set for September 16.

Did 'Girls Gone Wild' Exploit Spitzer Call Girl? Or the Woman She Claimed to Be?

Posted by Eriq Gardner

The whole Elliot Spitzer affair was strange enough. When Ashley Dupre, the call girl at the center of the sex scandal with Spitzer, tangled with "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis for exploiting her in a video, the episode got even weirder.

Hard to believe there's any room to increase the surreality of the situation, but now a New Jersey woman named Amber Arpaio is suing both Durpre and Francis because in the infamous video, Dupre claimed to be Arpaio, flashing Arpaio's driver's license as a way to convince "Girls Gone Wild" employees that she was old enough to be filmed naked.

There's enough Pirandello-like role-playing here to make one's head spin, but what it comes down to is this: If Dupre presents herself as Arpaio on film and subsequently claims exploitation by the filmmakers, doesn't that mean that Arpaio is really the exploited one? So says Arpaio's claim in New Jersey district court, where she alleges invasion of privacy, defamation, unauthorized use of name for advertisement, injury to reputation, and a conspiracy to commit a tort.

This strange, little twist now makes Ashley Dupre and Joe Francis co-defendents together. How nice.

Media Outlets Get Challenged in New Lawsuits

Posted by Eriq Gardner

Some minor cases after a long weekend:

• What do Rolling Stone Magazine and Girls Gone Wild have in common? According to a new lawsuit filed in an Illinois county court, two women are claiming that the music magazine published photos of them topless without permission. Most of the non-celebrities were blurred, but the magazine must have overlooked these two, who are now seeking at least $30,000 in damages.

• Famed anti-videogame crusader/attorney Jack Thompson is fresh off misconduct proceedings where a Florida judge has recommended that he be found guilty of 27 counts of misconduct. Now, Thompson is striking back with a complaint filed in Miami federal court that accuses several Florida judges of serving illegally because their loyalty oaths were forged.

• A reputable Canadian public relations official is accusing The National Post of defamation for asserting that his criticism of industry-sponsored science on global warming was financially motivated. According to the lawsuit, the media organization accused him of being double-faced, and then violated copyright by taking a sent letter to the editor and maliciously altering it.