Let's Take a Look at All the Lawsuits Brought Against 'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Joe Francis

It's safe to say that very few people would be surprised to learn that Joe Francis, the founder of Girls Gone Wild, has been sued multiple times. The controversial franchise was built on the backs, and mostly the fronts, of vulnerable young women who were taken advantage of when intoxicated. That's when Francis and his team would appear seemingly out of nowhere, cameras in hand, ready to capture the moment when these young ladies flashed them. This footage became DVDs that were sold worldwide.

Some could argue that because most of these women willingly chose to engage in this behavior, they are solely responsible for whatever consequences came their way. However, there were at least a few instances where the legal lines were blurred. This occasionally led to a lawsuit. Details to follow

According to The Ledger, Becky Lynn Gritzke, a business major at Florida State University, sued the producers of Girls Gone Wild in 2002. Gritzke was at Mardi Gras in February of that year when video of her flashing her breasts was taken. This was then added to a Girls Gone Wild DVD which heavily featured Gritzke's image in its advertising. The video was distributed by MRA Holdings LLC who said people forfeited their right to privacy due to the newsworthiness of the event. A settlement was reached in October.

Less than a year after settling with Gritzke, Girls Gone Wild was once again under fire. The company was ordered to pay $1.1 million by the Federal Trade Commission who dinged them for marketing the DVDs and videos as "part of continuity programs that resulted in monthly shipments of DVDs or videos to consumers who did not agree to receive them." Basically, if someone ordered one DVD or video, they were automatically enrolled in a monthly subscription service without their consent.

In April 2008, Ashley Alexandra Dupre filed a complaint in a federal court in Miami alleging that she was "not old enough to sign a legally binding contract when she appeared partially nude in video footage filmed in 2003 by members of Francis's Mantra Films production company in Miami Beach," per Reuters. Dupre was 17 at that time. In July 2008 she dropped the lawsuit. Her lawyer said Dupre wanted to "eliminate all negativity from her life and focus on the positive."

After it was discovered that many of the girls featured in Girls Gone Wild videos filmed in 2003 were underage, Francis was charged with child abuse and prostitution in 2007. He pleaded no contest in April 2008 and was sentenced to 336 days in prison, reported Fox News. By that point he had been in jail in Bay County and in Reno, Nev. for a year, so he received credit for time served. Francis was given six months of probation upon release and was told he couldn't film in those areas.

In 2012, the Girls Gone Wild companies were taken over by R. Todd Neilson, the Chapter 11 trustee. Neilson sued Francis in June and "accused him of threatening to hurt the company’s employees and said that he should be banned from its Santa Monica, Calif., headquarters," via Reuters. Neilson stepped in after it was alleged that company money had been paying for Francis's luxury cars and fancy mansion visits in California and Mexico.

Also in 2012, hotel mogul Steve Wynn sued Francis for defamation of character while in pursuit of a $2 million debt incurred during a crazy weekend at Wynn‘s Las Vegas resort, per The Hollywood Reporter. In response to this, Francis told both a judge and a TMZ reporter that Wynn threatened to kill him. "He said he would hit me in the back of the head with a shovel and bury me in a hole in the desert," claimed Francis. The jury sided with Wynn and awarded $40 million in damages.