GGW Owner at it again with the law.

Associated Press

RENO — A federal judge has loosened the legal leash on Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, but kept it taut enough to prevent the soft porn filmmaker from attending an adult industry conference this weekend in Phoenix.

U.S. Magistrate Robert McQuaid denied a motion by Francis' lawyers seeking permission for him to attend the Phoenix Forum, a conference geared toward adult entertainment businesses.

Girls Gone Wild is a co-sponsor of the event that runs Thursday through Saturday.

"It doesn't appear to the court that the trip has a valid business purpose," McQuaid said.

Francis, who turns 35 on Tuesday, has been restricted to traveling between Southern California and Reno since March 10, when after nearly a year in jail, he was freed on bail here pending his trial on federal tax fraud charges.

PANAMA CITY

Four unnamed females filed suit together Friday against “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis and his corporations, saying they were exploited and abused by being filmed in sexual situations or having direct sexual contact with Francis.

The suit was filed by lawyers Larry Selander, Thomas Dent and Ross McCloy, who sued Francis in 2003 and claimed a substantial, yet unspecified, settlement last year. Friday’s suit was filed with U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak, who jailed Francis last year for threatening Selander, Dent and McCloy during mediation in the 2003 case.

According to the complaint:

• Plaintiff “PB” was 17 in 2002 when she claims that “Girls Gone Wild” representatives took her and three female friends to a hotel room, gave them alcohol, “which PB believes included drugs or additional stimulants,” then paid her and a friend $100 to “engage in sexually explicit conduct with each other in a bedroom of the hotel room.” She said the footage was used in a “Girls Gone Wild” video.

• Plaintiff “PV” was 16 on March 31, 2003, when she says Francis “forced” her and a friend “to touch his exposed genitalia” in a Panama City Beach motel room. PV said Francis then paid each girl $50 to masturbate him.

• Plaintiff “PJ” was 13 and plaintiff “PS” 15 in March or April 2000 when they and a friend were driving in Panama City Beach and “Girls Gone Wild” representatives “solicited” them to expose their breasts for cameras. They said the footage was used in a video and distributed worldwide.

Francis has another pending civil lawsuit in the area. Brittany Pitts sued him in July, saying he got her to expose her breasts for “Girls Gone Wild” cameras in 2003 when she was 16 at the time.

That case is scheduled for trial in August.