Updated info from WMBB:

The Girls Gone Wild creator is back in court Monday. This time with a totally different outlook.

Joe Francis appeared before Federal Judge Richard Smoak on Criminal Contempt of Court charges. He pleaded guilty to one charge that he failed to surrender on time and therefore violated a court order by, what Judge Smoak called, being on his own schedule for five days.

Francis was asked to surrender by Thursday April 5th but did not show up in Bay County until Tuesday April 10th.

A second charge that Francis made a false statement to the court during a March 30th hearing was dropped. The burden of proof was too high for the US Attorney to meet.

Francis's behavior during Monday's hearing was noticeably different than when he was first brought into custody two weeks ago. The once extremely confident man broke down into tears as he entered his plea and apologized to the court for not surrendering on time.

Francis was sentenced to 35 days in jail and was fined just over 5000 dollars. His lawyers say Francis is disappointed in the sentence but has learned his lesson.

"I know he is disappointed. However on the other hand, he now knows what his sentence will be in this case and its important to remember that Judge Smoak could have imposed six months. He didn't do that so even though it's not what we were hoping, for it could have been worse," says Los Angeles based attorney Jan Handzlick.

Francis has already served 14 days in jail so that means he will have to serve 21 additional days before this case is behind him.

"These proceedings have had a dramatic impact on Mr. Francis and all I can say is that he looks forward to resolving the other matters as quickly as possible," says Handzlick.

Unfortunately for Francis, once this case is closed he will have to face the music for other cases around the country. Two cases are pending in Bay County, one for taping underage girls and another for misconduct while incarcerated. Francis is also facing federal tax evasion charges in Reno, Nevada.

Francis's attorneys did ask Judge Smoak to reduce the 35 day sentence to 30 days because those extra five days will put Francis in a different federal sentencing bracket. This could put Francis at a higher risk for incarceration in the tax evasion case. Smoak denied the defense's request for a lighter sentence.

"He now realizes quite forcibly that orders are to be obeyed and that he's not special. All of us have to obey those court orders and he's sorry that he didn't do so," says Handzlick.



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The following was released Monday by the State Attorney's Office:

State Attorney Steve Meadows has taken steps to make sure that Joe Francis is kept in Bay County to answer state charges.

A petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed today and will be presented to Circuit Court Judge Dedee S. Costello on Tuesday. That writ directs the U.S. Marshall to deliver Joe Francis to appear on charges related to use of under-aged girls in his business as well as charges that he possessed controlled substances while in the jail and bribed a correctional officer.

Warrants were obtained on the latter charges but have not been served on Francis because he is in federal custody. Francis entered a plea to contempt in U.S. District Court on Monday. It was also discovered that the U.S. District Court in Reno, Nevada has issued arrest warrants for income tax charges that were recently filed.

Full article and video here!