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Francis avoids more jail time
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Published: November 7, 2009
A judge has sentenced "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis to time served and a year of probation for filing false income tax returns.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero on Friday accepted the terms of a plea deal between Francis and prosecutors.
Prosecutors struck the deal after learning on the eve of trial that a key witness had lied to them.
The soft-porn mogul who filmed and marketed videos of young women initially was accused of taking $20 million in fraudulent deductions earlier this decade.
Under the deal, Francis entered guilty pleas in September to two misdemeanor counts of filing false tax returns and one count of bribing Nevada jail workers in exchange for food.
Otero gave Francis credit for 301 days already served.
Usher's divorce has been finalized
R&B singer Usher's divorce from his wife is final, according to court documents.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane issued a final decree in the divorce case Wednesday.
Usher, 31, whose real name is Usher Raymond IV, filed for divorce from Tameka Raymond on June 12. He said the couple had been separated since July 2008 and claimed there was "no reasonable hope of reconciliation" and the marriage was "irretrievably broken."
Tameka Raymond disputed Usher's claim that the couple had been separated since July 2008. She said in court documents that she "had every reason to believe her marriage was intact" and that the two were "intimately together as husband and wife as recently as June 6."
John out of hospital; will resume tour
Elton John has been released from a London hospital after being treated for flu and an E. coli bacterial infection.
The singer's spokesman says John was at home Friday and was feeling fine. He left the hospital early Thursday.
He says John planned to resume his suspended tour and would play scheduled U.S. dates with Billy Joel starting in Oakland, Calif., on Nov. 14.
Illness has forced the 62-year-old musician to cancel several gigs in Britain, Ireland and the United States.
Today's birthdays
Evangelist Billy Graham is 91. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is 66. The head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, is 57. Actor Christopher Knight is 52. Rock musician Tommy Thayer (KISS) is 49.
Source: The Associated Press
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