PANAMA CITY – “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis kept the meter running Wednesday as he made a quick stop at the federal courthouse in Panama City. In his first trip back to Bay County since being banned from the area for three years as a part of a plea agreement in a state criminal case, Francis stopped long enough to deny an alleged probation violation talk to a reporter and then duck into a waiting cab for a return to the airport.
“I’ve been ordered here by the judge, ‘ ” Francis said.
U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak ordered Francis to appear in Magistrate Larry Bodiford’s court Wednesday morning as a representative of his company, Mantra Films Inc.
The company faces a probation violation stemming from its 2006 plea agreement in federal court in which it admitted it did not keep the proper paperwork to prove that the performers in its films were adults. Mantra produces videos of women exposing their breasts in public or engaging in sexual activity.
Smoak previously ordered Francis to appear on Dec. 13, 2006, when the company was sentenced. He said at the time he was trying to instill respect for the law in Francis. Bodiford pointed out Wednesday that Smoak again had ordered Francis’ presence.
Francis stood and told Bodiford that he objected to the order.
Francis said after court that it was an illegal order.
“I cannot be ordered here in a matter that solely involves the corporation,” he said. “I decided to come and comply with the judge’s order, but I will leave it to a higher court to decide the validity of the judge’s order.”
Francis would not elaborate.
Bodiford scheduled the probation issue for a hearing on Aug. 13. Mantra corporate attorney Lisa Shulman asked for a later date, saying she and the company were going to be involved in a civil trial in Panama City starting Aug. 4. Bodiford said the date was set by Smoak and he could not change it.
Francis said after court that the probation issue comes down to a dispute over who is supposed to pay for a courtordered monitor of the company. Francis said Mantra was fined $1.6 million as part of the plea and that was supposed to be the only money it would be responsible for. But, he said, the government has billed Mantra $109,000 for the monitor, which the company refuses to pay.
Francis said he also will return to the area for the Aug. 4 civil trial, which he said might take as long as three weeks to complete. Francis, who entered a plea to time served in March to a felony charge of child abuse from a 2003 state case, was banned from the area for three years under that plea. Enforcing the ban is complicated by the fact that Francis is not on state probation nor any threat of incarceration.
He is allowed to return if it is for court-related matters. Francis is a named party in the lawsuit.
Francis said the federal trial, in which he is being sued by a Georgia woman who says she was underage when she was filmed exposing her breasts in Panama City Beach in 2002 or 2003, will be a good chance to showcase the company’s “policies and procedures” it has “always had in place in regards to the girls that participate in ‘Girls Gone Wild.'”
“It’ll be a good time,” Francis said. “We’re gonna have some fun with it. And I’ll enjoy being in Panama City, Fla., for three weeks without fear of my ban.”