from www.newsherald.com – U.S. Magistrate Judge Allan Kornblum ruled Tuesday that he can’t force a Girls Gone Wild plaintiff to release more information about the “sexually explicit” films in which she reportedly appeared.
Joe Francis, the founder of Girls Gone Wild and his company Mantra Entertainment Inc., are being sued in federal civil court by four local women. The women allege that they were filmed in various stages of undress and involved in sexual activity in 2003 when they were minors. They all are now adults.
Earlier this month, the attorneys for one of the plaintiffs, referred to in court records as Plaintiff B, told Francis’ attorney that she had appeared in two adult films after the Girls Gone Wild incident. Francis’ attorney, Rick Bateman, then made two motions asking for more information about the videos.
Kornblum ruled that Bateman can try to get his information at a deposition of Plaintiff B but that judges did not have the power to force someone to give up something they claim they don’t have.
“Plaintiff B and her attorneys should be prepared to be questioned exhaustively about the circumstances surrounding the making of these films, much like Defendant Francis was grilled about the financial information he claimed to know little about,” Kornblum wrote. “The Court cannot strong-arm a witness into providing information they adamantly claim they do not have, but the party seeking the information is entitled to ask as much as they can to aid them in obtaining the information by other means or to build a record to show the jury that they tried.”