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More Jail for Tearful Girls Guy

Mon., Apr. 23, 2007 5:32 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

Joe Francis will be sleeping in his own bed again. The one that's sitting in the jail cell he's called home for the past two weeks, anyway.

The Girls Gone Wild creator pleaded guilty to one count of criminal contempt of court and was sentenced to 35 days in jail—minus the 13 he has already served awaiting his hearing—and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.

Francis was picked up by U.S. marshals at the Panama City, Florida, airport Apr. 10 while en route to turn himself in to authorities after missing a court-ordered surrender date of Apr. 5. He's been in Bay County Jail ever since.

U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak took the X-rated video entrepreneur to task after Francis profanely lashed out last month at seven underage Girls Gone Wild participants who were suing him for exploitation. While Smoak initially let mediation continue, he slapped Francis with the contempt charge after determining that the 34-year-old multimillionaire had only extended an offer to the plaintiffs to avoid the contempt citation.

"We're disappointed Joe was convicted on one of the charges, but at least the end of this ordeal is in sight," Francis' attorney, Jan Handzlik, said in a statement. "It's pretty unusual for a businessman to be shackled, jailed and held in solitary confinement, all stemming from his failure to mediate and settle a civil case."

The Panama City News Herald reported that Francis, who suffers from an anxiety disorder, was teary-eyed throughout Monday's hearing.

"I'm sorry for my behavior," he told the judge, explaining that he was unsure of the terms by which he had been ordered to surrender. "That's not an excuse. I should have just been there on time. I'm sorry. I really am. I've had a lot of time to think about it."

It's unclear, however, where exactly Francis' train of thought has been taking him.

While he was indicted on federal tax evasion charges the day before he ended up behind bars in Florida, a day after his arrival he was caught trying to bribe a guard $500 in exchange for a bottle of water and then a search of his cell turned up prescription sleeping pills and anti-anxiety meds.

Francis was charged with six counts of possessing a controlled substance, introducing contraband into a jail cell and trying to bribe a public official for his ill-fated attempt to make himself feel more at home.

The soft-core porn purveyor's attorney tried to get his client's contempt sentence reduced to 30 days—because the extra five days could lead to an automatic year in prison if Francis is convicted of tax fraud—but Smoak held fast. Francis is accused of reporting a bogus $20 million in expenses on his last two corporate tax returns and funneling more than $15 million in revenue from his breast-based empire into offshore bank accounts.

In between hearings, Francis reached an undisclosed settlement with the seven young women who sued him in 2003, characterizing the amount he's going to have to fork over as "a lot."