Girls Gone Wild Founder No Stranger to Controversy, Litigation or Judicial Outrage

Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild has been in the press lately, mainly because he is reportedly losing it inside prison without his bottled water and anti-anxiety medication. The reason he is behind bars is a little more complicated, but it is basically because he pissed off a federal judge. Never a good move.

Anyway, reading about him refreshed my memory that a respected colleague recently sued Mr. Francis, so I decided to look up the suit. The lawsuit, VM Schindler v. MRA Holdings, LLC, CV2003-00490, Maricopa County Superior Court, was brought by a young lady who exposed herself at a Girls Gone Wild-sponsored event. Sorry, no link to any photos.

As with most of these suits, the suit was not successful, and actually the judge granted summary judgment in favor of Mr. Francis and his company. But ironically, as he did with the recent federal judge, Mr. Francis managed to piss off an Arizona state court judge enough to sanction him almost $14,000 for his misconduct in a deposition.