This time it was a technicality that got Joe Francis off.

A Florida judge has dismissed 40 of 46 charges against the Girls Gone Wild creator, his Mantra Films and cameraman Mark Schmitz stemming from their 2003 arrest in Panama City Beach for allegedly featuring X-rated footage of two 17-year-old girls in his popular candid-camera video series.

Circuit judge Dedee Costello said in a written ruling that there was not enough evidence to try Francis & Co. on racketeering and felony prostitution for encouraging the underage girls to indulge in sex acts for a motel shower scene during a spring break video shoot.

The main reason the evidence is lacking is because Costello had previously thrown out hundreds of hours of videotape that formed the basis of the charges, citing investigators' failure to properly execute search warrants for the porn purveyor's condominiums and private jet.

Costello's decision forced the state attorney's office last month to drop the majority of their case.

But the bad news for Francis: The remaining charges could still net the Girls guru a combined 40 years in the slammer.

Francis' attorney, however, is optimistic the still-pending counts would eventually be dismissed.

"We're real pleased that the judge threw out the vast majority of the charges, and she's given us leave to file additional motions to have the remaining charges dropped," Larry Simpson, Francis' Tallahassee-based lawyer, tells E! Online.

Simpson says the judge set a Jan. 31 deadline to file the new motions, but concedes, "We've got a lot of things we've got to do yet before this is all over."

In a moral victory for prosecutors, Costello firmly rejected Francis' argument that authorities bent the law to gin up a case against the pornographer.

"The [Bay County Sheriff's Office] did not manufacture evidence, entrap the defendants with underage informants who were instructed to lie about their age. Nor did they encourage other informants to lie by promising them a contingent fee," she wrote.

"The BCSO did not in any way induce these defendants to violate the law; they merely arrested them and charged them with violations after discovering the evidence. The taint of the improper search warrant and seizures was removed by the court's order suppressing evidence. It is not necessary to dismiss all charges unless the governmental misconduct is so outrageous that it would offend the principles of justices. The court does not find dismissal necessary."

Despite the setbacks, State Attorney Steve Meadows says he's still gunning for Francis.

"After the physical evidence was suppressed, we expected this result. We are disappointed but understand judge Costello's ruling," his office said in a statement.

"We will proceed on two counts of use of a child in a sexual performance, two counts of conspiracy...and two counts of prostitution. We can go forward on those counts without the physical evidence that is now unavailable. On the six counts which remain, we will continue to fight to the last day on the last charge."

Last month, a federal judge in Florida sentenced Francis to community service and ordered Mantra Films to pay $1.6 million in criminal fines for including minors in Girls Gone Wild videos.

On behalf of his company, Francis pleaded guilty in September to three counts of violating record-keeping laws by not documenting the ages and identities of the females appearing in the DVDs, a few of whom turned out to be underage. In addition to performing eights hours of community service a month for 30 months, the judge also ordered Mantra to submit to outside auditing of its bookkeeping to ensure compliance with the law.

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old entrepreneur and another GGW entity, MRA Holdings, have cut a deal with prosecutors in Los Angeles in a separate federal complaint on similar charges of improper labeling.

In that case, prosecutors agreed not to press for prison time in exchange for Francis acknowledging wrongdoing, paying a $500,000 fine and agreeing to stay out of trouble for three years. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22.