Judge Alicia Franklin: Please Provide an Explanation!

Reprinted from August 26, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. I take a fair airing of facts about Judge Alicia Franklin and her work as an appointed CPS attorney very seriously. I played a significant role in the chain of events that resulted in Franklin becoming a judge and I genuinely like her. I have helped Franklin in ways no other lawyer could and I contributed financially to her campaign when she was running against Denise Pratt.

I also know and really like the Democrat running against Franklin, Sherri Cothrun. Cothrun provided me most of the information described below, but I have done my own home work as well. I write below about facts I have verified, not partisan attacks from the opposing candidate.

I now have a box of copies of every fee invoice Ms. Franklin ever submitted to the county and I have someone doing my own independent, non-political analysis of those vouchers. I really hope to announce soon that I have found a sterling example of how ad litem attorneys should do their billing. But, I have already seen enough to make me worry that may not be my conclusion.

Here is a brief preview of my next issue regarding Judge Franklin:

1. Franklin’s campaign web site says “Re-Elect Alicia Franklin” when she has never been elected to office.

Appointed judges must say something like “Keep Judge Franklin” according to the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct.

2. Attorneys: when is the last time you billed 18.75 hours in one day? How about 21.0 or 21.5 hours in one day? Those are the total hours that Alicia Franklin billed the county on May 1, 5 and 6, 2014, while she was busy campaigning in the primary runoff election against Pratt. Those hours billed do not include work on the private cases where she was the amicus attorney. She did not bill for trials or mediations on those days.

I am analyzing ad litem invoices submitted to the county for payment in ways judges and, apparently, the county auditor are not. I assume the attorneys submitting invoices to judges never imagined someone like me would carefully look at their invoices either.

I have this very puritanical view on billing the county for legal work and being paid with our tax dollars to represent children in CPS cases: the bills paid with tax payer dollars must be accurate and false billing is a crime. Fraudulent billing in cases involving abused and neglected children is morally repugnant. I am not saying that is what Franklin did on those three days in May (and those were just the first three days semi-randomly selected for analysis). I just want to hear her explanation before I make a judgment. I do know as insanely hard working as I am, I have never billed that many hours in one day (instead, I was up at 4:30 a.m. today working on this newsletter).

3. Judge Franklin billed the county for work on CPS cases as an attorney on dates after Franklin was sworn in as a judge. I am not saying her invoices were dated after June 18 when she was sworn in. I am saying she did work as a lawyer after June 18 and billed the county while she was a sitting judge. Franklin seems to feel she was entitled to “wind down” her law practice while she was a judge.

4. Do you think an amicus attorney in a hotly contested custody case who is also running for judge should accept campaign contributions from a party to the case? Should the amicus disclose the contribution to the other attorneys and to the judge who appointed her?

I have been so truly hopeful about this bright young, enthusiastic attorney becoming judge. I really hope Franklin can explain these concerns and I will certainly give her a chance to do so.

Judge Franklin has already explained some of these issues to the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle. In fact, I warned Franklin in advance about these issues so that she could be prepared to explain them. But, attorneys know a little more about hourly billing and the ethical rules that should guide our conduct than do reporters and editors. We all should look forward to Franklin telling us why her actions were proper, despite the initial appearances.

I am begging Judge Franklin to provide a really good written explanation of the five issues raised above and I will print what she says verbatim in my next issue. I want my faith restored in this judge and I hope she can do that for us all.

I have come to really like Douglas Ray York, Alicia Franklin’s fiance. I know he is going to bristle at what I have written above. Getting mad because someone has dared question the ethics or common sense of the woman you love does not answer these very reasonable questions. Alicia is a judge now because I dared question Judge Pratt and expose what she had done. Please do not go Rick Perry on me and brush my inquiry off as a “partisan witch hunt.” I have 100% provable facts and my questions about those facts should be answered. We will all infer something bad has happened if Judge Franklin does not respond and explain these facts.