‘Girls Gone Wild’ trial ends with acquittal
RENO -- A jury acquitted a former Nevada sheriff's deputy of bribery charges Friday after she was accused of accepting nearly $10,000 in gifts in exchange for giving special treatment to the jailed founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire.
Ex-Washoe County Sheriff's Sgt. Michon Mills embraced her attorney and broke into tears as the verdict was read in U.S. District Court in Reno on Friday.
The 39-year-old Carson City woman had been accused of accepting a $4,500 Cartier watch and a $5,000 Saks Fifth Avenue gift card from an associate of Joe Francis while he was jailed in Reno on tax charges in 2007 and 2008. She had faced up to two years in prison.
Mills was assigned as the point of contact person for Francis after he was placed in the mental health housing unit. Prosecutors said he was allowed to run his soft porn business while there.
Mills' lawyer, Leah Wigren, said in her closing arguments that the government failed to prove her client did anything to benefit Francis based on the gifts.
