Francis Free, Blasts "Inbred" Florida Officials

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=254b2396-20cc-4509-9387-2b94a02bdad5

Francis Free, Blasts "Inbred" Florida Officials
By Josh Grossberg
Wed, 12 Mar 2008

Joe Francis is back in the wild.

Two days after getting sprung from a federal lockup in Reno, Nevada, the Girls Gone Wild mastermind turned up in a Panama City, Florida, courtroom on Wednesday and accepted a deal from prosecutors.

Francis agreed to plead no contest to one count of child abuse for filming underage girls, and several misdemeanors.

In exchange, a Bay County judge sentenced Francis to time served, as well as six months of "nonreporting" probation, and prohibited him and his Girls crew from filming in the county for the next three years.

"The only reason I pleaded no contest was to get out of jail. I'm 100 percent innocent of all these ridiculous charges," Francis told E! News shortly after the hearing ended. He had originally been facing four felony and two misdemeanor counts of conspiracy, prostitution and using minors in a sexual performance during a 2003 spring break shoot.

The 34-year-old boob aficionado had been holed up in a Reno cell for the past 11 months, caught in a tug-of-war between federal authorities in Nevada, who have brought a tax-dodging case against him, and the Florida State Attorney's Office, which has been trying to nail him on sexual-abuse charges.

Francis referred to his legal limbo as being in a "black hole."

His attorney, Roy Black, said it was "necessary" for Francis to take the plea deal to put the state case behind him and focus on the tax case.

Black also stated Francis was innocent of the charges.

"Even though [the girls] claimed that they were 18, signed papers saying that and said on video they were 18, because it was a strict liability offense, all of that, the court said, makes no difference," Black explained to E! News.

There was no immediate comment from prosecutors.

But shortly after tasting sweet freedom, Francis got down to slamming the Sunshine State.

"I cannot believe that I've been in jail and this was illegal," he said. "[Panama City] is a corrupt town, run by corrupt officials. This is just a whole crock...a sham with trumped-up charges.

"I am in a town of about 7,000 inbreds who are totally corrupt."

Black even lodged a prosecutorial misconduct motion against the chief prosecutor for a "pattern of blatant abuse" in his efforts to nail the infomercial kingpin.

As part of the plea agreement, Black withdrew that petition, and the state returned Francis' brand-new Ferrari and $60,000 in cash that had been confiscated.

But that didn't stop Francis from calling out Bay County officials anyway.

As for the tax case, the Girls guru said federal prosecutors offered him time served in exchange for a guilty plea, something he's not quite willing to do yet.

If convicted, he could face 10 years in prison, but Francis said he's optimistic those charges would be resolved very soon.

His publicist, Ronn Torossian, said the jiggle-happy entrepreneur planned to return to his home in Los Angeles later tonight.

"He's looking forward to watching Girls Gone Wild movies and is excited about the launch of the magazine," the rep said. "We're going to be doing some things tonight in L.A. with family and friends."