Steve Wynn asks jury for $40 million in damages from Joe Francis

An attorney for Steve Wynn asked jurors Tuesday to award the casino mogul an additional $20 million in his slander suit against “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis.

“He needs to be stopped,” Wynn’s lead lawyer, Barry Langberg, told jurors Tuesday before they began deliberating punitive damages in the case.

The Los Angeles jury already awarded $20 million to Wynn this week, finding that Francis knowingly made false statements when he told reporters and others that Wynn threatened to kill him and bury his body in the desert amid a spat over a gambling debt. Because the jury found that Francis acted with malice, Wynn can seek additional punitive damages.

The initial award surpassed the $12 million Wynn’s attorneys had asked for and swelled Francis’ already substantial debt to the Las Vegas billionaire. With the original $2 million gambling bill and a $7.5-million defamation judgment awarded by a Nevada judge this year, Francis owes Wynn close to $30 million.

“The message has been sent,” Francis attorney Aaron Aftergood told jurors Tuesday.

The Wynn-Francis feud stretches over several years and multiple lawsuits. For those counting, Wynn is 3-0 in civil judgments.

Steve Wynn awarded $20 million in Joe Francis court case

A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded casino mogul Steve Wynn $20 million, after it found that he had been defamed by “Girls Gone Wild” creator Joe Francis.

Wynn had sued Francis over the latter’s claims that Wynn had threatened to have him killed and buried in the desert. Testifying last week, Wynn called the accusation a “terrible lie” that could potentially hurt his reputation and that of his eponymous company.

“He’s unrepentant, vicious, out-of-control,” Wynn said of Francis.

But since Wynn filed suit in 2010, Francis has maintained that the threat was real. He said music mogul Quincy Jones, his neighbor and a longtime friend of Wynn’s, told him that Wynn wanted Francis dead in an email.

In court, Jones said that Wynn never threatened to kill Francis, and that Jones had never told Francis that Wynn had.

Francis’ team has never produced the email; Wynn said that’s because it doesn’t exist.

The Wynn-Francis feud stretches over a number of years and multiple lawsuits. Francis attorney David Houston has suggested that their fraught history is what riled Wynn enough to threaten Francis.

Francis made the death-threat accusations while warring with Wynn over a roughly $2-million gambling debt Francis had racked up. Francis and Wynn also battled in court over Francis’ accusations that he was plied with prostitutes and drugs during his betting spree. (A Nevada judge sided with Wynn in a lawsuit over those claims.)

In questioning Wynn, Houston tried to prove that the mogul, considered a sort of elder statesman in the gaming industry, was capable of spouting off threats. Houston played part of an interview from the 1980s in which Wynn told TV reporter Meredith Vieira that he’d choke her if she didn’t include certain information in her report.

“I think you heard her laugh,” Wynn said.

“Or gasp,” Houston replied.

Steve Wynn-Joe Francis death threat case unfolds in L.A. court

Did the casino magnate threaten to kill the soft-core porn purveyor?

That’s the question jurors are sorting through this week in a strange trial involving an only-in-Los Angeles cast of characters: Steve Wynn, Joe Francis and Quincy Jones.

Wynn has sued Francis over his claims that the Las Vegas casino mogul threatened to have him killed and buried in the desert. Testifying Wednesday, Wynn called the accusation a “terrible lie” that could potentially hurt his reputation and that of his eponymous company.

“He’s unrepentant, vicious, out-of-control,” Wynn said of Francis, creator of the “Girls Gone Wild” juggernaut.

But since Wynn filed suit in 2010, Francis has maintained that the threat was real. He said music mogul Jones, his neighbor and a longtime friend of Wynn’s, told him that Wynn wanted Francis dead in an email.

Francis’ team has never produced the email; Wynn said that’s because it doesn’t exist. Jones is scheduled to testify during the trial.

The Wynn-Francis feud stretches over several years and multiple lawsuits. Francis attorney David Houston suggested Wednesday that their fraught history is what riled Wynn enough to threaten Francis.

Francis made the death-threat accusations while warring with Wynn over a roughly $2-million gambling debt Francis had racked up. Francis and Wynn also battled in court over Francis’ accusations that he was plied with prostitutes and drugs during his betting spree. (A Nevada judge sided with Wynn in a lawsuit over those claims.)

In questioning Wynn, Houston tried to prove that the mogul, considered a sort of elder statesman in the gaming industry, was capable of spouting off threats. Houston played part of an interview from the 1980s in which Wynn told TV reporter Meredith Vieira that he’d choke her if she didn’t include certain information in her report.

“I think you heard her laugh,” Wynn said.

“Or gasp,” Houston replied.

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