The Defense Alicia Franklin Should Be Making

Reprinted from the September 16, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. The public relations flack Judge Franklin has hired (with either campaign funds or money she made on CPS cases), is not doing a very good job for her. It does not really help Franklin to tell her to lay low and say nothing while the PR firm tells the press that my 100% provable facts are just a “political smear.” Here is what Franklin’s spokesperson would be saying if I were Franklin’s media and political advisor:

First of all, it is a shame you are not looking into the hard work Judge Franklin is doing every day in her courtroom to provide justice to families and children. She took on a court that was devastated by her predecessor’s incompetence and she has already done a mountain of work to close out cases and correct errors Judge Pratt made. I suggest you sit for a few hours in Judge Franklin’s courtroom and decide for yourself what her dedication to justice and the law is.

The issues Greg Enos has raised about the appointment and payment of attorneys in CPS cases do need to be looked into. Judge Franklin is committed to honesty and transparency in government and she calls on County Judge Ed Emmett to establish a task force to study these problems.

Judge Franklin is using her own broad experience in representing children in CPS cases every day when she appoints attorneys and closely monitors their fees.

The specific allegations made by Greg Enos do not reflect anything wrong Judge Franklin has done. Law firms routinely bill for work done by their associate attorneys and paralegals and that is all Judge Franklin did. Her work as a lawyer was monitored by experienced, caring judges in the juvenile and family courts and those judges knew full well that Ms. Franklin was being paid, in part, for work done by her staff. The vouchers Franklin submitted did not say “Only I did this work” and there is no place on the forms to note that an associate did the work. Enos should be blaming the wording of the voucher form or perhaps the law, but not Judge Franklin.

Mr. Enos’ complaints are really about an entire system that needs some reform and not about the 100% appropriate actions of Judge Franklin.

Judge Franklin is happy for any real journalist or investigator to carefully examine the billing she submitted to the county during the time she worked with such dedication and energy to protect abused children.

It is election time and we trust that the voters will not be confused by these allegations made by a Democrat who obtained his “evidence” from Judge Franklin’s political opponent.

If you really want “fair and balanced” journalism, can I do anything more than stick to real facts I can prove AND write the defense for the person I am accusing of wrongdoing? I still stand by my offer to Judge Franklin to print verbatim any response she has to these facts I have presented. Mr. McGrath can call or e-mail me with his client’s side of the story any time he wants.

Of course, I can refute everything I wrote above as Franklin’s best possible defense. Most importantly:

The law does NOT allow a guardian or attorney ad litem in CPS cases to ordinarily bill for work done by other attorneys (see the Gamez case I cite in this newsletter).

If Franklin was billing for other attorneys’ work, she should have said that on her vouchers, which clearly make it look like she did all of the work. What would happen if a deputy sheriff turned in a voucher for 32.25 hours of overtime in one day and when confronted, claimed he was billing for work a few other deputies did too? That officer would be fired and then arrested.

The judges who approved Franklin’s vouchers are clearly not reviewing or monitoring the billing of attorneys in CPS cases.