Arrest warrant issued for ‘Girls Gone Wild’ founder Joe Francis

Joe Francis, the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video empire has a $500,000 warrant out for his arrest.

The city attorney’s office said the arrest warrant was issued for multiple reasons, including that he is living in another country and “has no ties to this community.”

Francis is facing seven charges stemming from an alleged altercation in May when he was at “Girls Gone Wild” headquarters, said Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the city attorney’s office. The incident involved “pushing and shoving” and Francis spent the night in jail.

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For the record

An earlier version of this story cited a city spokesman as saying that Francis missed a court date. The spokesman later said he misspoke and that there was no court hearing.

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Francis, 41, was accused of multiple counts of making criminal threats, trespassing, battery and disobeying a court, Mateljan said.

In addition to the charges, Francis faces a probation violation from a January 2011 conviction of false imprisonment and assault, Mateljan said.

Francis, who founded the soft-porn video empire, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2013.

An attempt to reach Francis’ publicist for comment was unsuccessful.

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