It's sort of a happy ending for Joe Francis.
The Girls Gone Wild mastermind is set to be released Tuesday from a Bay County Florida jail where he's currently serving a 35-day sentence for criminal contempt of federal court.
But as soon as he's out, a federal judge has ordered authorities to ship him off to Nevada, where he'll face tax-evasion charges.
Florida prosecutors had requested to keep Francis in custody on unresolved 2003 criminal charges stemming from a Girls shoot in which he allegedly filmed underage girls in sexual situations.
However, Federal Magistrate Larry Bodiford ruled Thursday that the tax evasion counts took precedence over the prior charges and that Francis should be sent to Reno.
Hoping to keep Francis in the pokey, the State Attorney's Office said it would appeal Bodiford's ruling to U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak.
"Our position is that there are outstanding warrants that remain," prosecution spokesman Joe Grammer told the Associated Press. "If the judge in Nevada says that he will be let out on bond, there is still an active warrant in Florida and that would keep him from being released."
As it happens, Smoak is the judge who cited the softcore porn purveyor with contempt last month and issued a warrant for his arrest after Francis launched into a profanity-laced tirade during mediation talks with two of the Girls Gone Wild participants suing him for exploitation.
The Girls guru was subsequently picked up by U.S. marshals on Apr. 10 and pleaded guilty two weeks later to one count of criminal contempt of court. Along with 35 days in lockup, he was also slapped with a $5,000 fine.
In a separate case, a federal grand jury in Reno indicted the X-rated video entrepreneur on multiple counts of bribery and tax evasion on Apr. 11 after a probe by the Internal Revenue Service claimed he had unlawfully deducted more than $20 million in bogus business expenses on his 2002 and 2003 corporate tax returns.
The IRS also accused Francis of hiding an additional $15 million generated by his Mantra Films Inc. and Sands Media Inc. in offshore bank accounts and entities supposedly earned by other people.
An arraignment has been scheduled for May 22. If convicted, Francis could get up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Bodiford's decision to send Francis to Reno was prompted by the fact that his sexual battery and tax evasion cases shared the same court date. Based on his behavior so far however, it seems Florida prosecutors had good reason to insist the inmate remain in their custody.
Just one day after his incarceration on contempt charges, Francis dug himself an even deeper hole when he tried to bribe a security guard $500 to keep secret a stash of prescription sleeping pills and anti-anxiety pills found in his jail cell. The State Attorney's Office subsequently charged him with one count of bribing a public servant, five counts of bringing contraband into a jail cell and three counts of possessing a controlled substance—third degree felonies that carry a maximum five years in the big house.
But the 34-year-old kingpin's legal woes don't end there.
Around the same time Francis pleaded guilty to contempt, he got some more bad news when the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office charged him with misdemeanor sexual battery stemming from an incident occurring at a swanky Hollywood party on Jan. 10 when he allegedly groped an unwitting partygoer. Prosecutors say they have a witness who has backed his accuser's claims and is also willing to testify that the 18-year-old woman repeatedly asked Francis to stop touching her.
A conviction in that case could net the adult video peddler six months in the slammer and a $2,000 fine.
Francis' Los Angeles-based attorneys and rep were not available to comment on the latest development.