'Girls Gone Wild' Producer Charged
Apr 25, 1:40 PM EST

PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA (AP) -- "Girls Gone Wild" producer Joe Francis is now facing 22 criminal charges, including filming underage girls involved in sexual activity.

Francis, 30, was arraigned Thursday in Bay County Circuit Court with racketeering and conspiracy to engage in racketeering activity, which are both first-degree felonies which carry up the 30 years in prison.

He also faces three counts of promoting the sexual performance of children; four counts of conspiracy to promote the sexual performance of children; two counts of using children in sexual performances; four counts of procuring persons younger than 18 for prostitution; two counts of conspiring to procure persons under 18 for prostitution; two counts of selling, distributing or offering to distribute or possessing with intent to distribute obscene material; two counts of prostitution; and one count of trafficking in hydrocodone.

Many of the charges name Mantra Films Inc. and Aero Falcons LLC as co-defendants.

Mantra Films produces the "Girls Gone Wild" videos, which routinely feature public nudity and sexual situations.

Francis and his staff were in Panama City Beach in February, March and April to tape a Spring Break special. He was arrested April 3 on prostitution, sexual exploitation and drug trafficking charges. Some of his employees have also been charged.

Francis attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, said from his office in California that the number of charges show how weak the state's case is.

"What they did was take one incident and try to cobble it together to support a (racketeering) claim, and it's transparent," he said. "There's no racketeering involved here. The charges against Mr. Francis are reckless and irresponsible."

Racketeering is when someone intentionally sets up an illegal moneymaking operation and uses the funds to support a legitimate or illegitimate business.

The charges list several girls by their initials only, all younger than 18, who investigators said were filmed on March 31 engaging in sexual activity.

Petrocelli said the girls identified in the charges all told the videos producers they were older than 18, some said it while being videotaped, and one or more had signed a waiver declaring themselves older than 18.

Petrocelli, who may be best known for representing Fred Goldman in a wrongful death suit against O.J. Simpson, said Francis case is an example of city and county officials trampling on the freedom of expression.

"The goal of 'Girls Gone Wild' is to capture the spontaneity of college coeds having fun on Spring Break and other times of leisure," Petrocelli said. "This is about the way young people have fun these days. It might be different than the way you and I used to have fun."

Petrocelli said the prosecutor should know that Francis wasn't trafficking in hydrocodone, for example, because he was given Francis' prescription for Vicodin and a letter from his doctor.

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