Taxing Trial Delay for Joe Francis

It looks as if Joe Francis is going to miss out on spring break '08.

The Girls Gone Wild purveyor's trial on tax evasion charges has been postponed until Apr. 29, according to the Nevada U.S. Attorney's Office, meaning all of Francis' Florida-based legal affairs are going to remain on the back burner and he will likely remain in the slammer.

His trial was originally scheduled to begin Tuesday.

The 34-year-old entrepreneur has been denied bail in Nevada pending the resolution of his bond issues in Bay County, Florida, where he's facing six felony counts—down from 46 in the case's prime—of prostitution, conspiracy and using minors in a sexual performance stemming from a GGW video filmed at a Panama City Beach motel during spring break 2003.

Francis is also facing two charges of transporting contraband into a jail cell after guards caught him with prescription meds when he was locked up for 35 days on a contempt rap in April.

"It’s frustrating to be delayed once again by circumstances beyond our control," Panama City State Attorney spokesman Joe Grammer told the Panama City News Herald on Thursday, when the Nevada court granted the postponement.

On orders from the Bay County circuit court, Francis would be sweating it out in a Florida jail if he weren't already behind bars in Reno.

In April, Francis was charged with deducting more than $20 million in bogus expenses from his 2002 and 2003 corporate tax returns; stashing revenue from his X-rated empire in offshore bank accounts and companies supposedly owned by other people; and transferring more than $15 million to a brokerage account in Irvine, California, in the name of a Cayman Islands company actually run by Francis himself.

The charges carry a possible 10-year prison sentence as well as a $500,000 fine.

So while his accountants have been given another seven months to sort all that out, Francis has more time to think about what's awaiting him in Florida.

On Monday the breast-utilizing entrepreneur introduced a feature on his new Website meant to cast a long, dark shadow of doubt on the federal lawsuit brought against Francis in June by two women who claim that the GGW crew coerced them into getting naughty on a tour bus in Orlando in exchange for free clothes and cocktails—and then reneging on a promise to not include the footage in a GGW production.

"You have my full permission to put this on anything, I don't care," plaintiff Christina Brose says on the video now posted at www.meetjoefrancis.com. "Tomorrow, we're going to be like, 'What the f--k were we doing?" adds her fellow plaintiff, Brooke Patsolic.

(And before watching the video on Francis' site, you must click an agreement stating you're at least 18.)

In their lawsuit, Patsolic and Brose state that they "specifically did not consent to any use of their likeness or image."

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday in Panama City.

Francis reached a settlement in April with seven women who claimed they also were underage when they stripped down for GGW and were suing him for exploitation. The sum was never disclosed, but the defendant characterized it as "a lot."

"Frivolous lawsuits like this should not be allowed to take advantage of our legal system," Francis' attorney, David Houston, said Monday. "Unfortunately, these plaintiffs' press releases and trumped-up allegations have no resemblance to the truth, and it's time we expose these people for what they are. A situation similar to this is what's keeping Joe Francis in jail, and it's time people know the truth."

Houston has stated that Francis' indictment on tax evasion charges is a result of a complaint mounted by a disgruntled former GGW employee.