Read Online The Madness of Joe Francis: "I thought we were all just having fun. I was wrong." by David Angier - Free Book Online
Authors: David Angier
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Francis had paid two girls to masturbate him, was never videotaped.
The judge was saying if Bagwell knew there was only one tape and told the signing judge – her – there were two, he was intentionally misleading the court. If Bagwell had mistakenly told her there were two tapes, she said, he was being reckless with the facts.
Either way, one tape was not enough to justify a search of the condos for evidence of racketeering. Therefore anything that came out of that search was inadmissible.
There went the evidence.
When Dyer called me at the office he was just fishing for my take on the story. He called back a few hours later in full quote mode, meaning he had planned out a series of useless statements that would do nothing to illuminate the issues. He started off with a bland, monotone, obviously rehearsed explanation of where the case would go from this point forward.
“You’re talking like I’m looking for a quote. You think I’m quoting you, right?” I asked.
“Did you already put your story to bed?” he asked. “Good. That’s what I was hoping for.”
I was actually out walking my dog, Hiaasen, a 5-year-old, 95-pound German shepherd who was trudging through the late afternoon heat.
“He smells like cats,” a 10-year-old boy said, coming up to pet the dog.
“He smells like cats?” I asked, moving the cell phone away from my mouth. “He should smell like dirty dog, because that’s what he is.”
I got back into my conversation with Dyer.
“Sorry,” I said, “my dog gets a lot of attention when we take walks.”
“Now I can tell you what’s really going to happen next,” Dyer said. He thought there were going to be some charges that would survive the motion, but probably none of the felonies.
As Hiaasen sniffed around the base of a telephone pole, I told Dyer that Meadows thought the felony charges of promoting the sexual performance of a child could be proved through testimony only.
Dyer said he was going to look at that next, but thought that charge would go away too. The only counts that might survive, he said, were the ones dealing with the two girls who Francis had paid to masturbate him. They’d always been based solely on testimony.
The girls, though, were killing their own case by changing their testimony to improve their standing in the lawsuit. But the more they tried to boost the suit the more damage they did to both the criminal and civil cases.
I finally pried Hiaasen away from the telephone pole and we continued walking through the waves of late afternoon heat. We both kept our heads down as we moved, both eager to return to the air conditioning.
A few months later, and a few degrees cooler, on December 4, prosecutor Mark Graham filed his answer to Aaron Dyer’s and Larry Simpson’s motion to dismiss the charges.
He admitted he didn’t have the evidence to go forward with 32 of the 42 criminal charges. But said there were four charges of using minors in sexual performances and four charges of promoting the use of minors in sexual performances, eight felonies, all dealing with the shower scene, he thought he could take to trial.
The first four, the use of minors charges, Graham said, were his strongest.
He said the promoting charge had a stronger definition of sexual performance and he might have to call cameraman Mark Schmitz, who was charged along with Francis, and an unnamed photographer to testify that they witnessed the shower scene. He argued that an audience of two or three could support the elements of a performance.
Larry Simpson fired back two weeks later with his own written reply. He again argued that all the charges should be tossed. He then said that Graham’s desire to convince Schmitz, who had not resolved his own case and was, at that point, not in a position to testify without incriminating himself, and the photographer to testify wasn’t a good enough reason for the judge to let Graham keep those charges.
Simpson said the girls shouldn’t
The judge was saying if Bagwell knew there was only one tape and told the signing judge – her – there were two, he was intentionally misleading the court. If Bagwell had mistakenly told her there were two tapes, she said, he was being reckless with the facts.
Either way, one tape was not enough to justify a search of the condos for evidence of racketeering. Therefore anything that came out of that search was inadmissible.
There went the evidence.
When Dyer called me at the office he was just fishing for my take on the story. He called back a few hours later in full quote mode, meaning he had planned out a series of useless statements that would do nothing to illuminate the issues. He started off with a bland, monotone, obviously rehearsed explanation of where the case would go from this point forward.
“You’re talking like I’m looking for a quote. You think I’m quoting you, right?” I asked.
“Did you already put your story to bed?” he asked. “Good. That’s what I was hoping for.”
I was actually out walking my dog, Hiaasen, a 5-year-old, 95-pound German shepherd who was trudging through the late afternoon heat.
“He smells like cats,” a 10-year-old boy said, coming up to pet the dog.
“He smells like cats?” I asked, moving the cell phone away from my mouth. “He should smell like dirty dog, because that’s what he is.”
I got back into my conversation with Dyer.
“Sorry,” I said, “my dog gets a lot of attention when we take walks.”
“Now I can tell you what’s really going to happen next,” Dyer said. He thought there were going to be some charges that would survive the motion, but probably none of the felonies.
As Hiaasen sniffed around the base of a telephone pole, I told Dyer that Meadows thought the felony charges of promoting the sexual performance of a child could be proved through testimony only.
Dyer said he was going to look at that next, but thought that charge would go away too. The only counts that might survive, he said, were the ones dealing with the two girls who Francis had paid to masturbate him. They’d always been based solely on testimony.
The girls, though, were killing their own case by changing their testimony to improve their standing in the lawsuit. But the more they tried to boost the suit the more damage they did to both the criminal and civil cases.
I finally pried Hiaasen away from the telephone pole and we continued walking through the waves of late afternoon heat. We both kept our heads down as we moved, both eager to return to the air conditioning.
A few months later, and a few degrees cooler, on December 4, prosecutor Mark Graham filed his answer to Aaron Dyer’s and Larry Simpson’s motion to dismiss the charges.
He admitted he didn’t have the evidence to go forward with 32 of the 42 criminal charges. But said there were four charges of using minors in sexual performances and four charges of promoting the use of minors in sexual performances, eight felonies, all dealing with the shower scene, he thought he could take to trial.
The first four, the use of minors charges, Graham said, were his strongest.
He said the promoting charge had a stronger definition of sexual performance and he might have to call cameraman Mark Schmitz, who was charged along with Francis, and an unnamed photographer to testify that they witnessed the shower scene. He argued that an audience of two or three could support the elements of a performance.
Larry Simpson fired back two weeks later with his own written reply. He again argued that all the charges should be tossed. He then said that Graham’s desire to convince Schmitz, who had not resolved his own case and was, at that point, not in a position to testify without incriminating himself, and the photographer to testify wasn’t a good enough reason for the judge to let Graham keep those charges.
Simpson said the girls shouldn’t
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