Oprano Adult Industry Forums - Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown

Oprano Adult Industry Forums (http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/index.php)

- Legacy Archived Main Board (http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/forumdisplay.php?f=25)

- - Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown (http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/showthread.php?t=89720)

Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown

WWW- "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis is claiming that a federal judge is teaming up with a former law partner to target him for retribution.

Francis says U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak is behind a new lawsuit filed last week accusing him of soliciting minors to participate in sexually provocative videos.

The lawsuit was filed last week by Ross McCloy on behalf of his clients who say they were 17, 16, 15, and 13 when they were approached to be in "Girls Gone Wild" videos. McCloy is the former law partner of Judge Smoak.

It was Judge Smoak who put Francis in jail when settlement negotiations broke down when Francis lost his temper. McCloy was the lead attorney on that lawsuit also.

Calling the latest lawsuit "Shakedown Part 2," Francis said Judge Smoak should have recused himself from the previous case.

"We asked three times for the judge to recuse himself in front of his ex-law partner and he refused," Francis told reporters. "This is America and we are not going to let that happen again. We are not going to let them put me in jail for a civil suit."

Re: Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown

Gotta side with Joe on this one. No judge should preside over a trial that is brought to his or her court by their former law partner. That's a HUGE conflict of interest. If he's guilty he should lose the suit but he also deserves a fair trial and getting fair rulings from a judge who was partners with the opposing attorney sure doesn't seem likely.

Re: Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown

I have to say that it sounds more like Joe Francis trying to deflect from the real issue, that there may be significant numbers of underage performers on video, or at least who have been approached to "appear" in the GGW videos.

Re: Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown

Conflict on the Judges part however, he doesnt have to recuse himself. Though, it may give Francis a solid reason to appeal. It depends on how the Judge handles himself during trial.

But I suspect no one would really care for Francis, no matter who presided over the trial.

Michael

www.AdultBizLaw.com

Re: Joe Francis Accuses Judge of Shakedown

There are so many girl who would do ggw that are overage its so dumb.