If you’ve been feeling sorry for Joe Francis after a federal judge ordered him to serve jail time, put your sympathy on hold until you’ve heard the latest episode of “Sleazebags Gone Wild.” Francis is on the run, which makes him a federal fugitive. Judge Richard Smoak originally slapped Francis with a contempt citation last month, after the smut-peddler started yelling threats and obscenities at the women who were suing him for selling videos of their drunken underage sex romps. The judge suspended the citation when the parties reached a settlement, but then reinstated it on Wednesday when he learned that Francis was fudging the terms of the agreement. Francis remained defiant, telling reporters that the judge had “lost his mind,” and cleverly stating, “it is a case of a judge gone wild.”
Going AWOL has done nothing to soothe the wild and crazy judge. Smoak has refused to suspend the jail order and has raised the damages Francis has to pay the plaintiffs. Even Francis’ own attorney said he was “stumped’” by the actions of his client, who hasn’t been seen since Thursday. Apparently Joe is learning that karma can be a bitch–a bitch gone wild, that is.
