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Meadows repeatedly sought to portray Francis to potential jurors as an “enemy combatant” to the point where Francis likely would never find an objective jury, Black stated in his motion. The motion also stated that Meadows had so muddied the case with public misstatements and twisted facts that the only fair remedy for Francis was to throw out the indictment altogether because the jury pool was tainted. Roy Black’s motion concluded, “Dismissal is the only appropriate remedy as no lesser remedy can redress the prejudice to the defendant. The misconduct has not been inadvertent or isolated over time. Instead, the abuse was deliberate, spans over four years and continues to this very day.” Roy Black’s full motion to dismiss the case against Francis can be read here. (Motion to Dismiss based on Prosecutorial Misconduct).
The motion did not prevent Steve Meadows from continuing to make noise and get himself into trouble. On November 9, 2007, ABC’s Nightline aired a story about Francis, featuring reporter Martin Bashir. Bashir interviewed both Francis and Meadows. The show can be viewed in its entirety here (Nightline Video; Nightline Transcript).
During Bashir’s interview with Meadows, Meadows repeated his prejudicial statements about Francis’s guilt. But when Bashir asked Meadows whether he believed that Chief Investigative Officer Richard Bagwell, the Panama City (Bay County, Florida), Florida police officer who had lied to the courts to get search warrants against Francis, was a “competent investigator,” the question seemed to make Meadows extremely nervous. He refused to answer any questions at all about Bagwell, as he mopped the flop sweat from his face with a napkin (Nightline Video; Nightline Transcript).
Later, in an apparent attempt to shore up his crumbling credibility in front of Bashir, Meadows did something that was not only another example of egregious prosecutorial misconduct, but was actually a crime, according to Florida State law. He held a screening party for Martin Bashir, his cameraman and producer, of the seized videotape of the two underage girls who’d lied about their ages in Florida. Meadows himself has insisted that this footage constitutes child pornography, and, as such, is contraband. Florida law forbids any dissemination of such material, even by a prosecutor, without a court order, meaning that by showing the tape, Meadows committed a second-degree felony offense, and also violated the privacy rights of the girls depicted on the videotape.
Francis’s Florida attorney Roy Black filed another motion asking the Florida court to dismiss charges against Francis based on this newest, and worst, example of prosecutorial misconduct by Steve Meadows, misconduct which has denied Francis the chance for a fair trial in Florida. (Supplemental Motion to Dismiss) In addition, Francis’s Nevada attorney David R. Houston has requested that the Florida Attorney General initiate a criminal investigation of Florida State Prosecutor Steve Meadows as a result of Meadows’ disseminating child pornography (Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus).
Once Francis exposed the egregious (and criminal) misconduct on the part of Steve Meadows, Francis’s attorneys began receiving calls from the prosecutor’s office. Suddenly, Meadows wanted to make a deal, at any cost.
As the publicity surrounding Meadow’s behavior increased, so did the frequency of his calls to Francis’s legal team. Before long, according to Francis, Meadows was calling almost daily, “practically in tears” begging Francis to take a plea deal so a trial could be avoided and Meadows could spare himself from a potentially lengthy prison sentence for the crimes he committed while prosecuting Francis.
Anxious to put the entire ordeal behind him and get on with his life, Francis decided to enter a plea of “no contest” to a couple of minor charges in the Florida case. He was eager to put Steve Meadows, Judge Richard Smoak and Bay County behind him forever.
As soon as Francis made this announcement, he was freed from jail in Reno on March 10, 2008.
Francis traveled to Bay County, Florida the following day, and in a brief court appearance entered a plea of no contest to one count of “child abuse” (because the women who’d lied about their ages were under 18), and two misdemeanor counts of prostitution (because the girls who’d lied about their ages allegedly took money from the cameramen for their performances). He also pleaded no contest to two counts of violating posted jail rules by having a water bottle and cash in his cell. Francis was given no additional jail time, and Bay County was ordered to return Francis’s Ferrari that had been seized during his 2003 arrest. “I’m happy not to come back,” Francis joked with the judge during the March 11 hearing. “I’m done with Bay County.”
Speaking to the press from the courthouse steps moments after leaving, Francis publicly denied any wrongdoing and explained that he plead no contest simply to get out of jail, and that he had committed no crime. “We are all less free today. The fact that a few corrupt public officials in Bay County, Florida were able to keep an innocent man incarcerated for 11 and a half months hurts us all, because you’re going to be next,” Francis told the assembled press and local citizens. “But I believe in our constitution, and I am glad I stood up for our rights as citizens, even if it meant giving up eleven months of my life. ”
With that, the Florida legal case was over.
Though legal scholars will likely debate the particulars of this miscarriage of justice for some time, Francis was content to look instead to the future. Unfortunately, there were certain parties interested in seeing Francis put behind bars, and government agencies all too willing to give those parties a voice in court.
As previously mentioned, in early April 2007, while Francis was in jail, he received the unexpected and quite shocking news that a federal grand jury in Reno, Nevada had indicted him on two counts of tax evasion. The national press was suddenly abuzz with accounts of Joe’s “new legal woes,” and in what seemed to be a clear example schadenfreud, many in the media seemed to enjoy reporting that Francis faced “up to 10 years in prison.” But these new charges would turn out to be yet another gross miscarriage of justice. When all the facts were finally brought to light, the government’s case was shown to be built on lies and misrepresentations by a cabal of shady conspirators, but Francis was suddenly facing 10 years in prison.
Initially, Francis didn’t pay much attention to these tax charges. He knew he had done nothing wrong, and fully expected the facts to emerge and exonerate him. But as Francis concentrated on freeing himself from imprisonment while also trying to run his multimillion-dollar company from behind bars, federal prosecutors devoted their enormous resources to building a case against Francis for almost a year before Francis could finally direct his full attention to answering the charges.
The federal indictment alleged that Francis had improperly deducted expenses for a corporate retreat he had built for his company in Mexico, and also improperly deducted certain business expenses. The government’s position was that the Mexico property was not a legitimate business expense, despite the fact that Francis and his company, Girls Gone Wild, had used it from the beginning as a setting for numerous Girls Gone Wild video productions, promotional events and corporate gatherings, the same way Playboy uses the Playboy Mansion. The second IRS charge involved allegedly unreported interest from an investment account.
The US Department of Justice asserted that Francis claimed over $20 million in false business deductions on his corporate tax returns during 2002 and 2003. Francis’ attorney at the time, Jan L. Handzlik, said, “The government has chosen to make a criminal case out of what we believe to be, at most, a civil tax dispute.” Francis didn’t know what the source of this IRS attack was, and was unable to effectively defend against it from his jail cell. But something wasn’t right about this sudden attention from the government. To Francis, things simply didn’t add up.
Michael Barrett became an employee of Girls Gone Wild in 2001. Referred to Francis by BDO Seidman, a large and well-regarded accounting firm at the time, Barrett was a smooth-talking CPA with a seemingly impressive resumé who gained Francis’ trust and was put in charge of handling all of the company’s finances as well as Francis’s personal taxes. Francis trusted Barrett and followed his recommendations, unaware of how much damage this misplaced trust would eventually cause him.
