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This juror isn’t too wild about Joe Francis saying the 12 men and women who convicted him should be “lined up and shot.”
After The Hollywood Reporter published an interview in which the Girls Gone Wild founder railed against the jury that found him guilty of false imprisonment and assault causing great bodily injury, one of those jurors spoke with Gawker to reveal details of the trial.
But first, the background.
In his interview with THR, Francis said of the jury “each and every one of you are mentally f–ing retarded and you should be euthanized.” He added: “You are the weakest members of the herd. Goodbye! And if that jury wants to convict me because I didn’t show up, which is the only reason why they did, then, you know, they should all be lined up and shot!” (See the video above.)
In a piece for Gawker — crafted from a phone conversation with the outlet — the anonymous juror said the rant reaffirmed that the guilty verdict was correct.
“It’s a little bizarre to have someone looking into a camera and suggesting you be shot, even if he has no idea what I look like since he never showed up at the trial,” said the juror. “If anything, it reaffirms the decision we came to — unanimously, of course, after only about a day and half of deliberations — as one of the charges was directly related to the vague (and no so vague) threats he made against the victim he assaulted to keep her from filing a police report.”
The juror went on to say no one on the jury particularly wanted to serve on the trial. In other words, none of them were there because they had a “vendetta” against Francis.
“I don’t think there was anybody that was jumping up and down to get on this jury, but I don’t think there was anyone who was actively begging to get out of it,” said the juror.
PHOTOS: Tax Evader and Accused Jailbaiter: Inside Joe Francis’ Criminal Charges
The juror revealed the decision to convict rested on the “emotional testimonies” of three women in their 20s, who said Francis would not allow them to leave his mansion and assaulted one of them.
“The 911 calls from that night, the several of them, would be harrowing for a lot of people to hear — not necessarily the jurors or people in the courtroom, but people in general,” the juror said. “Those were very emotionally charged calls that were not coming from a place of, ‘I’m just trying to get one over on a celebrity so I can file a civil suit.’”
For more on Francis, read THR’s profile on the mogul.
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