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    'Girls Gone Wild' chief loses $7.5M ruling to Wynn

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire said Thursday he'll ask a Nevada judge to rescind a $7.5 million award given to Las Vegas Strip casino mogul Steve Wynn in a civil defamation case.

    Joe Francis told The Associated Press that he wasn't present and didn't have a chance to defend himself during a Wednesday hearing at which Clark County District Court Judge Mark Denton issued a default judgment and awarded Wynn $5 million in compensatory and $2.5 million in punitive damages.

    "This is a joke," Francis said. "It can't stand. We weren't given notice."

    Francis has made a fortune marketing videotapes featuring young women flashing their breasts, but he's been beset by legal problems in recent years. The defamation case came after he said he could prove that Wynn deceives casino customers.

    Wynn and Wynn Las Vegas filed the lawsuit in 2008 amid a separate legal tussle over a $2 million casino debt that Francis incurred in 2007 at the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

    Wynn released a statement Thursday saying Denton's ruling in the defamation case "disproves the false claims against Steve Wynn and Wynn Las Vegas that Francis has publically disseminated over the past three years."

    Francis' Reno-based lawyer, David Houston, said attorneys who had been representing Francis in the case withdrew before Wednesday's hearing in Las Vegas, and the Los Angeles-based Francis didn't get proper notice.

    Houston said he will appeal to the judge, but conceded it is usually difficult to ask for a judgment to be undone. He said he may also appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

    "To default someone for not attending a pretrial conference, and then to enter a $7.5 million judgment without the party present seems extreme to the max to me," Houston said.

     
    • i_trade_energy  •  3 mths ago
      Note to self: If ever I become a millionaire, don't mess with a billionaire.
      • keo 3 mths ago
        Further note to self- if I make those millions taking topless pictures of "almost legal" girls in really shady transactions and then expect to get money back I gambled away in Vegas based on moral codes, I am a royal idiot.
      • Justin Cayse 3 mths ago
        LOL! Too true! A classic case of new $ going up against old $.
      • Democrat For Romney 3 mths ago
        lol
    • Mad as HellO  •  3 mths ago
      If I got rich....I would fade away and hide from society.
      • Christopher 3 mths ago
        if only we were so lucky
      • Fish Dog 3 mths ago
        But most people bash the ones who earned their way into the 1%...funny.
    • SA  •  3 mths ago
      New video: "Guy gone broke."
    • Yahoo User  •  3 mths ago
      #$%$bags fighting #$%$bags for #$%$ money...bottomfeeders scrapping for filthy money
    • Tom S  •  3 mths ago
      Tort lawyers love rich fools.
      • Kerry 3 mths ago
        Yep, a fool and his money.....
    • Stu Pidasso  •  Sharon, Pennsylvania  •  3 mths ago
      Do you really think you are going to defeat a casino boss? He owns the judge!
    • dynamohum  •  San Antonio, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      girls gone wild money gone by by
    • Ms Colleen  •  Shallotte, North Carolina  •  3 mths ago
      He makes me ill, such a slime bag.
    • STIK  •  Zanesville, Ohio  •  3 mths ago
      This is so cool.... Pay up #$%$..
    • Mad as HellO  •  3 mths ago
      dirt bags in a conflict
    • PETER  •  3 mths ago
      Sleep with the dog, get the fleas.
    • Korikill  •  Fair Oaks, California  •  3 mths ago
      So you welch on your bet, then when they try to make you pay up, you call them cheaters, them you cry when they sue you and WYNN?
    • Craig  •  Marengo, Illinois  •  3 mths ago
      This guy is a knuckle head. If he thinks anyone in this country feels sorry for him or gives a Sh@!. He is sadly mistaken.
    • calven  •  3 mths ago
      An IDIOT and his money are soon parted.
    • Justa' Seed  •  3 mths ago
      ..if your already a millionaire/billionaire..why gamble..what's the point
    • Viktor Laslo  •  3 mths ago
      Karma
    • Vegasvince  •  Elmhurst, Illinois  •  3 mths ago
      Couldn't happen to a better guy...
    • Keith  •  3 mths ago
      It's a CASINO...it's their JOB to CHEAT you out of your money! That's why they exist!
      I think you've been flashed one too many times!
    • Kevin  •  3 mths ago
      "Sign this form swearing that you are legally 18, but DONT LIE!" This guy is such an idiot, a tool and a complete a*s*ole...
    • Me  •  3 mths ago
      Joe Francis is trash. Can only wish they find him laying face down in a ditch somewhere.
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