MIAMI - Girls Gone Wild adult video founder Joe Francis on Wednesday pleaded no contest to filming underage girls for his DVDs and was sentenced to time already served in jail and set free.
Multimillionaire Francis built his fortune selling videos of young women - usually drunk
- baring their breasts. He had been charged with filming two 17-year-old girls in Panama City, Florida, in 2003 for one of his videos, which sell millions of copies a year.
"The only reason I pleaded no contest was to get out of jail," Francis said by telephone from Panama City, insisting he was "100 per cent innocent."
The girls signed forms consenting to be taped and falsely claiming they were 18 years old, which would make them of legal age. But Francis and Girls Gone Wild were still responsible for knowing the girls' real age, his attorney, Roy Black, said.
On his website, Francis claimed officials in Panama City were intent on making an example of him and wrongfully pursued him with a vengeance.
Black said there were "various matters" that caused "both sides to compromise." But he declined to provide further information, citing an agreement by both sides not to disclose details of the plea bargain.
Francis said he would return to Los Angeles and resume running his company, and added that he had not made any changes to the way he would do business.
"I'm not making any changes whatsoever, even in this case, our (filming) releases were perfect," he said.
Francis had been in jail for the last 11 months in Nevada, where he was indicted for tax evasion. Those federal tax charges remain in place and Francis said he would continue fighting them.
- REUTERS/Nielsen
