Wild case interrupts the party

With a Bel-Air mansion as the scene of the violent crime, a stolen Bentley as the getaway car, Francis as the colorful and controversial victim and his former girlfriend Paris Hilton as the party girl said to have led police to the defendant, the pending trial has the makings of the next big truth-is-stranger-than-fiction drama to unfold in a Los Angeles courtroom.

The role of victim is an uncharacteristic one for Francis, whose "Girls Gone Wild" videos feature nubile women flashing their breasts for the camera. In eight years, the tall, handsome entrepreneur has built his privately owned company into a lucrative brand and the sort of cultural touchstone that's parodied on "Saturday Night Live." His fortune has been estimated in the hundreds of millions. He owns two expensive homes, airplanes and luxury cars, and has also dated such other well-known "it girls" as Kimberly Stewart and Tamara Mellon.

"Girls Gone Wild" has been such a hit with the highly prized young male audience that Francis has been sought out by producers, studio heads and other businessmen eager to find out how to make fun-loving dudes open their wallets. He counts former Sony boss Peter Guber and music mogul Quincy Jones among his mentors. But his endeavors also have landed him in trouble with the law; he was arrested in Panama City, Fla., in 2003 in connection with a video shot during spring break in the beach town. Francis has been accused of filming of minors for one of his videotapes and charged with racketeering, prostitution, obscenity, child pornography and possession of an illegal drug. He has denied any wrongdoing and the case is pending.

Held hostage

There is no indication of any link between the earlier case and the shakedown attempt that occurred in the early-morning hours of Jan. 22, 2004, when an intruder broke into Francis' contemporary mansion in Bel-Air. Brandishing a pistol, the assailant ordered Francis to lie on the floor, tied his hands behind his back and relieved him of $1,500 in cash, his cellphone and an $8,000 Rolex watch, according to the police report. For the next few hours, the burglar repeatedly threatened to kill Francis while demanding money, the report says.