To keep the story simple, hundreds of small but disturbing details have been left out of this article, but as you will see, even in its broadest strokes, the story remains utterly unbelievable. Links to source materials have been provided for additional detail and verification.
The story begins in 2003 Panama City, Florida. Panama City is a small, conservative town of 36,000 people. It is situated in the northern panhandle of Florida, in what is referred to as the heart of the “Bible Belt” region of the United States.
Coincidentally, Panama City (Bay County, Florida) is also a top Spring Break destination. As background, Girls Gone Wild is one of the hottest entertainment lifestyle brands around. The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on national TV advertising, and is well known for its unscripted reality and lifestyle videos featuring college-aged girls getting naked and “going wild.” The Girls Gone Wild brand has become synonymous with Spring Break.
Girls Gone Wild planned a live Pay Per View event in South Padre Island, Texas during spring break with Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). To promote it, a then 29-year-old Joe Francis announced in numerous TV appearances that the event would be broadcast live from Panama City (Bay County), Florida, South Padre Island, and Cancun. When Panama City Beach Mayor Lee Sullivan publicly announced that he would shut down the GGW event, calling Francis “scum-sucking trash”, Francis proclaimed it was his First Amendment right to film Girls Gone Wild in Panama City (Bay County, Florida) and said he would do it anyway.
The mayor of Panama City (Bay County, Florida) and Joe Francis participated in a widely publicized TV debate on Fox News Channel’s The Greta Van Susteren show. During this debate, it was alleged that Girls Gone Wild was an organized crime ring engaging in racketeering (RICO) with Francis at its head. The mayor told Francis that if he stepped foot in his town he would be arrested. Francis replied to the mayor that “You can come arrest me,” but he wasn’t breaking the law. Francis was not worried because Girls Gone Wild has been filming for years all over the United States without incident. (Video of March 7, 2003 Greta Van Susteren Show – The Mayor of Panama City vs. Joe Francis; Transcript of March 7, 2003 Greta Van Susteren Show)
When the Girls Gone Wild crew arrived in 2003 for Spring Break in Panama City (Bay County, Florida) they were immediately harassed by local law enforcement. In response, Girls Gone Wild and Francis filed a First Amendment lawsuit to prohibit the town officials from interfering with the crew’s efforts to document Spring Break revelry on videotape. In the First Amendment lawsuit Girls Gone Wild and Francis sued the city, Mayor Lee Sullivan, Bay County Sheriff Guy Tunnel and Panama City (Bay County, Florida) Chief of Police Robert Harding, individually and in their official capacities. Local TV stations broadcast images of these individuals being served with papers. The law firm that represented Panama City (Bay County, Florida), as well as the officials individually, was Harrison, Sale, McCloy, and Thompson; this becomes important later in the story. Panama City (Bay County, Florida) was forced to back off and settled Francis’ lawsuit. The settlement called for the city to leave Francis and the GGW crew alone; though secretly the city assigned police and undercover detectives to follow Francis and the GGW crew. (News Herald article “GGW Sues”) (First Amendment Lawsuit by Girls Gone Wild & Francis against the Mayor, the Sheriff, and Panama City.)
Francis continued to make statements in the press challenging the city and its officials for harassing him, while seeking to create controversy that would generate addition coverage for the upcoming PPV event. As expected, there were no problems during Spring Break, and the PPV event went off in Texas without a hitch
However, back in Panama City (Bay County), Florida, several local women heard Girls Gone Wild was filming in their town. These women decided they wanted to be on Girls Gone Wild and set out on a mission to find a Girls Gone Wild cameraman. When they found the Girls Gone Wild crew, the women lied about their ages to a cameraman in order to be filmed. Two of those women were filmed by the camera operator taking a shower, and each falsified a written release that required them to be over 18 years old to be on camera. (Girls’ signed releases)
Joe Francis was not involved in the filming of the women. The women also admitted that they never met Francis until after the filming. All of these women’s lies and misrepresentations were captured on tape by the camera operator. In fact, a tape was later found of one of the girls who had appeared on camera 20 days before, flashing the camera and lying about her age at that time as well. The video of the women was never released by Girls Gone Wild and has been held in the custody of the Bay County Sheriff’s department since it’s seizure the day after it was shot in 2003.
Joe Francis and Girls Gone Wild have always had strict policies prohibiting the filming of anyone under the age of 18. The cameraman who actually filmed the women who lied about their ages, was an independent contractor not directly employed by Girls Gone Wild. The cameraman who filmed these women, like everyone else who films for Girls Gone Wild, attended numerous training meetings that explained all of the company’s policies and procedures. The camera operator also signed a cameraman agreement acknowledging that he fully understood Girls Gone Wild’s policy prohibiting the filming of underage girls. (Signed cameraman agreement)
When one of the women told her parents what she had done, the local police and sheriffs raided condos rented by the Girls Gone Wild crew, arrested Joe Francis and ten other company employees, and seized all of their clothes, belongings, videotapes, and equipment along with Francis’ Ferrari and his Gulfstream jet. The state attorney filed a massive and what was later ruled to be an overbroad indictment, claiming the company was a front for a criminal enterprise (racketeering/RICO violations), that drugs were found on the plane, and that Francis masterminded the entire operation.
In what can only be interpreted as revenge for Francis’ First Amendment lawsuit, the sheriff sent out a press release saying, “…a quantity of cocaine was found on Joe Francis’ 22 passenger jet” on the night of the arrest. No drugs were ever found on the jet and the judge ordered the plane returned 90 days later, but the damage had been done (what’s more, the plane itself was badly damaged in the search). (Bay County Sheriff’s Department press release) This press release from the Panama City (Bay County, Florida) Sheriff’s Department, and the misstatements and flat-out lies contained in it were clearly meant to criminalize, humiliate and destroy Joe Francis and his business. Francis and this fabricated drug allegation became the butt of jokes on The Tonight Show, The Howard Stern Show, and many other TV programs.
Even through the Sheriff’s department knew this press release contained numerous false statements and misrepresentations, they still refused to remove it from their website for over a year. The Bay County Sheriff’s department didn’t offer a retraction of this press release even though it was proven that it contained lies. In fact, the Bay County Sheriff’s department was so zealous in its attempts to “get” Joe Francis that three days after a thorough search uncovered no illegal drugs aboard Francis’ private jet they contracted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to vacuum the entire plane with a forensics shop vac and then test the vacuumed particles for any evidence of drugs! The FDLE reported that they found absolutely no trace of illegal drugs aboard Francis’ plane. (Link to FDLE report of vacuumed particles from jet) The judge also ruled the sheriff illegally seized the jet with no probable cause for doing so. Physical damage to the plane from the sheriff’s mishandling of it during the illegal seizure and the legal fees to fight for the jet’s return totaled over one million dollars. Francis is currently suing the Bay County Sheriff’s department for these losses. (Judge’s Order returning jet)
