NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A judge has ordered "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis to jail after settlement talks with seven young woman who claimed they were victimized by the video series fell apart, according to a report Friday.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak, originally found Francis in contempt last week after plaintiffs' lawyers complained he shouted obscenities at them during settlement talks, the Los Angeles Times reported. The judge had threatened jail time for Francis if a settlement was not reached and made that order Thursday after settlement talks broke down.
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| 'Girls Gone Wild' founder Joe Francis may be headed to jail after failing to reach a settlement with 7 women who say they were victimized. |
But by Thursday evening, Francis remained at large, and apparently defiant, the newspaper said.
Francis told the Associated Press late Thursday that the judge "had lost his mind," the paper reported.
"This judge has gone as far as to call me the devil and an evildoer," he was quoted as saying in the Times. "It is a case of a judge gone wild."
"It is not the judge's role to compel a settlement with the threat of putting one of the parties in jail," Francis lawyer Jan Handzlik, who is appealing the judge's order, told the Times.
Francis has made millions selling videos of drunken young girls baring their breasts and engaged in other racy acts.
The seven women, filmed on a Florida beach in 2003, say they were "victimized" by Francis' crew by being put in explicit scenes, the Times reported.
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