Judge Gives 'Girls Gone Wild's' Joe Francis Community Service, Stern Talking To
Determining that the $1.6 million in fines that his company was ordered to pay for not keeping accurate records on the ages of drunken 17-year-olds they may have accidentally filmed in the act of baring their breasts after funneling pints of Goldschlager on Spring Break would hardly put a dent in Girls Gone Wild jailbait-titty-flash mogul Joe Francis's private jet catering budget, much less make him pause for reflection about preying on drunken co-eds, a Florida judge tacked on some community service for Francis and his cohorts, then publicly chided them for the cowardice built in to their business model:
"It does not take a very brave man to go out and corner a girl in the middle of spring break who had four drinks," Smoak told Francis. [...]
The judge ordered Francis, his company president, general counsel and chief financial officer to each perform eight hours of community service monthly for the next 30 months. But Smoak said the corporate officers could avoid the obligation, giving Francis the option of "stepping up" and serving 16 hours a month of community service by himself in their place.
Attorney Aaron Dyer, representing Francis and the company, said he did not know if Francis would take on the entire sentence himself.
Smoak ordered Francis to read aloud in court a victim impact statement from one of the 17-year-old girls, who said she was emotionally tormented by her appearance on a "Girls Gone Wild" video and that the video damaged her relationship with her family.
If the judge is really serious about making his sentence sting, he'll dictate an appropriately tortuous venue for the community service, making Francis spend his monthly eight hours cleaning up a sorority house populated entirely by exhibitionistic problem drinkers the morning after their weekly keg party, who'll force him to listen about how disappointed they were that no cameras were around to shoot the topless, sexually experimental, and adequately documented minor-free fun they had the previous night.
