Joe Francis has recorded a YouTube video discussing his wrongful imprisonment and calling his persecution a silencing of free speech. The Girls Gone Wild founder starts the video with the text “this can happen to you,” even though there are very few of us making titty videos with drunken girls on Spring Break. He’s calling for the impeachment of the judge who sent him to jail without bail on contempt of court charges for a civil case, and urges people to e-mail the chairman of the House Judicial Committee to ask for Judge Smoak’s impeachment.

Francis was in jail way too long for contempt of court, and he has a point that he was wrongfully prosecuted by a judge with ties to the lawyer in the civil case. I read through the legal responses on his website and in my opinion he’s correct that he shouldn’t have stayed in jail as long as he did. The guy is definitely scummy and there are allegations that he raped an 18 year-old girl, but he was in jail for nearly a year on charges that did not warrant such a long sentence with no chance of bail.

Here’s why Francis shouldn’t have been in jail for so long:

It just so happens that Judge Smoak is the ex-law partner of Ross McCloy, one of the lawyers seeking millions of dollars from Francis for the women in the case. They were both partners in a law firm called Harrison, Sale, Smoak and McCloy. Interestingly, Judge Smoak’s other law partner was Franklin Harrison, who was the attorney that represented the sheriff’s department when Francis successfully sued the sheriff’s department and won his jet back.

[From MeetJoeFrancis.com]

In his new video, above, Francis tells the camera with wild intense eyes that he’s disputing the “multi-million dollar ransom” he was forced to pay in order to get out of jail. He settled that civil case for which he was indefinitely imprisoned for an undisclosed sum, and he’s now filing suit to get that money back, saying that he did it because he had no other way to get out of jail.

He agreed to settle the civil case after U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak jailed him in 2007 for contempt of court.

In Francis’ suit, he accuses Smoak of siding with former law partners to jail Francis and force him to settle on terms favorable to the girls. An attorney from a law firm where Smoak was once a partner represented the girls and their parents.

Smoak declined to comment on Francis’ allegations.

The judge ordered Francis jailed in 2007 after finding him in contempt of court. Attorneys for the girls said Francis yelled obscenities at them during a mediation meeting and refused to settle the case.

Francis now claims he was bulldozed into signing the settlement -by being jailed – and that it should be revoked.

The 35-year-old multimillionaire’s lawsuit states he understood that he “had no choice but to enter into the settlement in order to avoid further incarceration.”

Francis declined to say how much he paid, but described it as “a fortune.” He had previously told The Associated Press that the girls were asking for $70 million.

Robert Barnes, one of Francis’ lawyers, said the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles because that’s where Francis and his company, Mantra Films Inc., are based.

Francis said his actions are intended to protect average citizens.

“This fight is way bigger than me,” Francis said in an interview after a press conference announcing the lawsuit. “If this stands, this single-handedly undermines the entire civil judicial process in this country.”

[From Popeater]

Francis concluded that “When a person is jailed without bail for 11 months in a civil lawsuit, it violates the US Constitution and our basic freedoms and liberties.” He never mentioned in his video that the judge used to be the partner of one of the lawyers representing the parents in that civil suit he was forced to settle, and that was a major oversight. People don’t know that detail and it adds a lot of credence to his claims.

People don’t really care that Francis was in jail for so long because he’s not a stand up guy by any means. He still faces Federal charges on tax evasion, and he was able to serve out his Florida sentence in a relatively cushy Nevada jail with Internet access and unlimited phone time because of the tax evasion charges. He’s also being sued by a Vegas casino for $2 million unpaid debts.

Francis shouldn’t have been in jail for nearly a year on contempt of court charges and it was pretty much extortion by that Florida judge, but if he was an average guy not profiting off drunken girls, or maybe if he just paid his taxes and debts – his case would seem more credible.

I love how Francis uses an American flag as his backdrop. He should have used the same tactic as the President and Presidential candidates and put well designed phrases in the shot like “Protection from unfair prosecution,” and “Freedom of speech for all.”