The Madness of Joe Francis: "I thought we were all just having fun. I was wrong." (23 page)

The federal plea agreement that Francis signed in 2007 and the state criminal plea in 2008, McCloy said, were the proof of Girls Gone Wild’s sinister plan. Now, however, Francis was saying that he didn’t read the plea agreements and was even contesting that he signed them.

“I’ve got the court records,” McCloy told Smoak. “And I’m going to use the court records. I’m going to ram those right down Mr. Francis’ throat at trial.

“But for Mr. Francis now to get up and say, ‘You know those are all lies. I never saw those. I never read those. I sure wish I had and I’m doing a better job of listening to what my lawyers have to say.’ That puts the burden on us to refute what Mr. Francis is obviously intending on saying at the time of trial.”

Bateman said Francis was not playing games when he blamed his lawyers.

“In his heart and mind, and what he’ll testify to every time, is that he signed those documents to get out of jail, period. That he didn’t know it, that he didn’t believe it, that he doesn’t believe they violated the law. That he signed those because he wanted to get out of jail. He had been in jail and that was how to get out.”

Smoak recognized the importance of Francis’ plea agreements and told the lawyers on January 19, 2010, that he was inclined to grant a motion that would strip Francis of his defenses when it came to Plaintiffs B and V, because he’d already admitted to the illegal conduct in the pleas. Smoak held off on issuing that ruling until February.

During the November hearing, McCloy continued to ask for all of Francis’ defenses to be done away with because Francis was being evasive in answering questions about his personal wealth. The lawyers needed to know how much money Francis made so they could show that to the jury, which would decide how much money they should take from him in punishment. The jury couldn’t award more in punitive damages than Francis was able to pay.

But Francis kept saying he had no idea what his assets were or how much he was worth. McCloy said Francis refused to give them the simple financial documents they needed to show his net worth.

Bateman told the judge that Francis had disclosed all of that in his income tax returns and Mantra’s financial documents. McCloy said he had those documents, but surely that wasn’t everything that Francis had.

Bateman said Francis had never had to apply for a business loan after launching Girls Gone Wild and therefore had never had to prepare the type of documents that McCloy wanted.

“Is he the unusual person that has so much money coming in that he’s never had to prepare any kind of documentation for his net worth?” Smoak asked.

“That is what I understand,” Bateman said. He said Francis has simply lived off the profits from the DVDs ever since 1998. He hired people to run the business and when he said he oversees things from “30,000 feet,” he’s not kidding. Francis simply flies around the world, going to spring break destinations, parties, exotic locations and appearing in and promoting “Girls Gone Wild” videos.

Bateman told the judge that while McCloy and Dent were complaining about Francis being evasive, they hadn’t hired a forensic accountant to go over the financial records that had been supplied. With six weeks left until trial, Smoak said he was concerned that the plaintiffs had been too focused on Francis and not in getting prepared to argue their case.

“You have all been so obsessed with Francis that you couldn’t see anything else,” Smoak said. “You’ve had all these witness who you have not deposed. Had you started with any of them, even the most insignificant, you might have developed a picture and closed in on Francis so that by the time you took his deposition he would have nowhere to run. That just seems to be a common investigative technique.

“You all really have been obsessed with Francis. And for whatever flaws he has, Mr. Bateman’s explanation of his unstructured way of doing things is plausible. He’s just had more money than he ever needed to keep track of.”

“It’s easy to get obsessed with a personality like his that does everything he can to thwart the discovery process,” McCloy insisted.

Bateman pleaded for the judge to keep the case on track for trial in January.

“There’s been no evidence, not one person, not one, not one line, not Joe’s enemy, not the guy that told me he would be the first one to give him KY if he went to jail, has testified there was any policy of filming girls under the age of 18,” Bateman said. “Nobody. Not a scintilla of all the enemies he’s made that they’ve taken depositions of, not one has said that was a policy. And in fact, everybody that’s testified has said they were told not to do it. They didn’t want to tape young girls.

“Let’s go try this case, your honor, on January 4. Enough’s enough. They’ve gotten enough here that a forensic accountant can throw whatever number they want at a jury and let the jury determine whether or not Mr. Francis, who wasn’t even here for two of the instances, or Mantra or Girls Gone Wild has some liability.

“Let’s let the jury decide it and do it and let people appeal and stop playing the default game. That’s the game we’re playing.”

Dent and Ponikes insisted that Francis was dolling out the names of employees who could help them. This launched Bateman into another round of standing, sitting, sighing and gesturing. Smoak didn’t need Bateman’s help. He asked Pontikes for a list of the employees they’d been provided and how long they knew about them. Most had been disclosed early on, but Pontikes admitted that few had been deposed.

“Surely you recognize now that trying to depose Francis is an exercise in futility,” Smoak said. “Surely you could find some honest souls within that organization who would tell you what’s really going on and you could use that to close the noose (around Francis).

Smoak denied the motion for default judgment. He allowed for a short continuance of the trial, an extra month so the plaintiffs could prepare their case.

“I’m determined that we’re going to get this case tried,” Smoak said. “I want there to be as few grounds for appeal as possible.”

Bateman also told Smoak that the IRS had placed liens against Joe’s assets and cash holdings, nearly $140 million worth, and Francis might have to file bankruptcy.

“Of the several years of this saga, what else can happen Mr. Bateman?” Smoak asked.

“I told my secretary I could probably make more money by just getting a reality TV camera to follow this case around, rather than practicing law. I’m flabbergasted, but I guess there are no surprises anymore.”

With three weeks left until the start of Francis’ trial in Panama City, Rick Bateman asked Smoak to divide the case and hold two separate trials. He asked that Plaintiffs B and V be tried later and not with the other two girls.

He had a good reason for wanting to delay Plaintiff B’s trial: he needed more time to explore her recent admission that she’d been in two more pornographic movies since her Girls Gone Wild shoot.

Bateman had gotten to question Plaintiff B about those movies on January 20, and the questioning got a little heated, and a little childish, at times.

“I just remembered something, I think I told my aunt what I had done, that I had been in videos,” the girl said. “I didn’t think she believed the fact that I did … I was trying so hard to tell someone about it, but I couldn’t. I was so embarrassed and humiliated and ashamed of myself.”

“You were so embarrassed and ashamed of yourself you went right out and filmed two pornographic movies, voluntarily and for money; that’s how ashamed you were?”

“Yes.”

Bateman asked her why she didn’t tell the psychologist, the one hired by her lawyers who had interviewed her to ascertain how psychologically damaged she was, about these other movies.

“If I spoke to her now and told her about it, she wouldn’t be shocked. It’s part of the damages.”

“Why didn’t you tell her then? You’re here trying to get money for damages. Why didn’t you tell her then?”

“I wasn’t ready to talk to anybody about it.”

“You’re ready to come to this court and sue these defendants and talk about just what you’re ready to talk about, but not really what really happened?”

Dent objected, saying Bateman wasn’t letting the girl finish her answers.

“You’re talking over her answers.”

“I’m not talking over her answers, she said, ‘that’s it.’”

“Because you talked over her answer, so I’m making sure she’s finished …”

“I’m not going to listen to that.”

There’s some talk that the court reporter didn’t pick up, but apparently Dent asked Bateman if he was getting upset.

“I’m not mad a bit. I’m perfectly fine. I just want an answer to my question.”

“And all I want you to do is to allow her to answer the question. If you don’t like the answer, then you interrupt.”

“No, I got the answer.”

“Be quiet.”

“You be quiet.”

“You be quiet while she’s answering, that’s your obligation.”

By this time, no one remembered what the question was. It was read back for the girl.

“Do you understand the question?” Dent asked the girl.

“No, I don’t.”

“Then re-ask it,” he said to Bateman.

“Wait a minute, you’re not through answering the question or you don’t understand it?” Bateman said.

“Please repeat the question,” the girl said.

“Why didn’t you tell Dr. Lebowitz? You’re here trying to get money, you said it would be part of the damages, she probably …”

“I wasn’t ready …”

“Can I finish, please?”

“That was at a time I wasn’t ready …”

“Can I finish, please?”

“… to talk about it.”

“Can I finish, please? Why didn’t you tell her about it?”

“I wasn’t ready to talk about it.”

“You were ready to talk about Girls Gone Wild and that so you could get money, but you weren’t ready to talk about what you did as an adult voluntarily?”

He then asked her why she didn’t tell him about the films during their first deposition.

“I asked you and you …”

“I left it out.”

“… said, ‘No.’”

“There’s a difference.”

“Was that a lie when you told me, ‘No.’?”

“I wasn’t ready to …”

“She said she was sorry,” Dent said.

“When I asked you if there were any similar incidents to this, have you ever been filmed before and you said, ‘No’, was that a lie or not?”

“It was a lie.”

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Chapter 22

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O
n February 5, 2010, Smoak issued his order stripping Joe Francis of his defenses in three counts of the lawsuit pertaining to two girls. Joe Francis had pleaded out to criminal charges involving the same conduct he was being sued for, which Smoak deemed as pretty reliable proof of guilt.

Smoak found that Francis and Mantra had no defense as to sexual exploitation of Plaintiff B because they’d pleaded guilty in federal court to videotaping B, and couldn’t dispute that she was a minor at the time she was filmed. He did, however, order that a jury would decide whether Mantra actually sold the video, whether B was damaged and by how much.

Smoak found that Francis couldn’t defend himself against the count involving Plaintiff V in which he was accused of soliciting her for prostitution by offering her $50 to jerk him off. Francis had already pleaded no contest to that charge in state court, so he couldn’t now claim that he didn’t do it. A jury was still going to have to decide damages, and decide the other two plaintiffs’ cases in full.

A little while later, Smoak told Bateman that Francis wouldn’t even be able to testify that he pleaded guilty but didn’t actually commit the crimes. In a hearing on February 12, 2010, plaintiffs’ attorney Larry Selander asked Smoak to rule ahead of trial that Francis wouldn’t be allowed to claim innocence.

“You’ve ruled that the defendants are collaterally estopped (barred) from denying the material in their guilty pleas,” Selander told Smoak.

“Your honor,” Bateman interjected, “what he’s talking about is that my client has said that ‘I wasn’t guilty.’ As a matter of law you have ruled that once he pled guilty … you’ve ruled that for summary judgment, but if he wants to get on the stand and say, ‘I wasn’t guilty,’ then there’s certainly nothing to prohibit him from doing that.”

Francis hadn’t just said he wasn’t guilty, he’d repeated it like a mantra throughout numerous interviews and depositions since he’d entered the pleas. It was certain that he planned to tell jurors the same thing.

“If he wants to get on the stand and do what?” Smoak asked Bateman, seeking some clarification as to Francis’ intentions.

“Say, ‘I wasn’t guilty. I pled guilty, but I wasn’t guilty.’” Bateman said.

“I don’t think he can do that,” Smoak said.

“Then that will have to be your ruling.”

“That’s what collateral estoppel is.”

Bateman said he thought collateral estoppel meant that the jury would be instructed sometime during the trial that they couldn’t consider Francis’ denials, not that he couldn’t make them.

“Estoppel means estoppel,” Smoak reiterated.

“I’ve made my argument, and that’s fine,” Bateman said, looking to move on.

“Means you can’t do it,” Smoak persisted.