Criminal Complaint Filed Against Judge Alicia Franklin

Click here to read the criminal complaint I have filed with the Harris County District Attorney against Judge Alicia Franklin.  The more I see of how Franklin billed the county in CPS cases and parents in her amicus cases, the less pity I feel for her.  I know that at some point my perfect batting record in taking down elected judges for criminal behavior will fall below 100%, but this does not feel like the time when I will strike out.

I do not know that Franklin has committed a crime, but I have found 100% provable facts that need to be looked into by someone other than Republican District Attorney Devon Anderson, who bungled the Judge Pratt investigation and then made a “sweet heart” deal with Pratt that allowed her to avoid criminal prosecution.  Click here to read a motion filed by a District Attorney who wisely recused herself and asked for appointment of a prosecutor pro tem under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Sec. 2.07.  Ms. Anderson has too many ties to the attorneys and judges involved in this CPS billing scandal and her office should not investigate this matter.

Franklin has still not responded to my requests to provide her side of the story.  I hear that her defense is not “clerical errors,” but rather the simple fact that those impossible hours she billed include time actually billed by an associate attorney.  The problem with that defense is that Franklin’s invoices to the county are all solely in her name and do not disclose that the work was done by someone else.  Also, as shown by the following article, a specific statute on billing by attorneys and guardian ad litems in CPS cases says the voucher submitted to the county for payment by the ad litem shall list, “…the fees charged and hours worked by the guardian ad litem or attorney ad litem.”  Texas Family Code Section 107.015(d). The statute does not say the voucher can include hours charged or worked by, “the attorney ad litem or her associate or designated representative.”

At some point, Franklin may assert the “rubber stamp defense.”  It does appear that Franklin had a signature stamp that was used on some documents.  For example, look at the petition filed by Franklin in Cause No. 2014-34324.  This original SAPCR suit was filed by Franklin on June 13, 2014 at 4:02 p.m.  June 13 was the day Franklin was appointed judge by the Governor and sworn in.  I do not know the precise time when the rushed and secret swearing-in ceremony was performed by Judge Lisa Millard on June 13, so perhaps this petition was filed before Franklin officially became a judge.  However, she knew by 4:02 p.m. that she had been appointed, so why file the petition in her name?  The “signature” on this petition is clearly a signature stamp.  However, when Judge Lisa Millard signed the Temporary Restraining Order in that case on June 18, Millard knew that Franklin was a judge.  Franklin is still the attorney of record in this case, although a motion to substitute was filed on August 27 (over two months after Franklin became a judge).

Click here to see once more the proof that Franklin billed Harris County for work Franklin claimed she did as an attorney on a CPS case after Franklin was sworn in as a judge.