‘Girls Gone Wild’ founder alleges ‘torture’ at Oklahoma jail

New York, Nov 24 : Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis has accused guards at the Grady County Law Enforcement Center of abusing him during his stay at the Oklahoma prison facility.

Francis was held at the jail from May 17 to June 4 while being moved from a Florida jail to a federal facility in Reno, Nev., where he is awaiting trial next year on a tax evasion charge.

The 34-year-old has claimed that the guards denied him food and blankets and also threatened to strap him naked to a chair for 48 hours.

He also said that the people who tortured him also killed a 14-year-old boy.

"I fear for my life if I have to go back there [Florida]. These are the same people that killed a 14-year-old boy," Francis said in reference to a February 2006 incident in which a teen died while being restrained by guards.

"These are scary people down there. If I get sent back, they will retaliate. They killed that kid . . . I think I would have been dead or I'd be drooling in a cup," he added.

He said guards at the Florida jail, besides not giving him toilet paper or meals, forced him to wear ankle shackles that cut his skin and made him bleed in the shower.

"They treated me like I was a terrorist. They'd put my food just out of reach and laugh with each other, 'Oh, I guess Joe wasn't hungry today,’” the New York Post quoted him, as saying.

He further revealed that he "hysterically cried" and screamed in his cell but no one paid heed to his woes.

"They had me next to a cop killer and Herman Harmon, who shot a guy in the head with a .38 then escaped from his cell,” he said.

Francis has been in jail since April, when he was cited for contempt after yelling at attorneys during mediation in a federal lawsuit brought by women who were underage when his production company filmed them in 2003.

He was jailed for contempt in Florida, and his bail was revoked when contraband was found in his cell. He has since elected to stay in jail in Reno rather than post bail there and be sent back to custody in Florida. (ANI)