Alabama Sheriff Caught In Web Of Criminal Probes Asks For 'Prayers'

[DonViejo]

By Allegra Kirkland | May 4, 2018 6:00 am

Like several other Alabama sheriffs, Morgan County’s Ana Franklin has been accused of taking advantage of an archaic state law to pocket taxpayer funds set aside to feed inmates. But the allegations against the county’s top law enforcement officer go much further.

The venture in which Franklin invested the inmate food funds happened to be a used-car lot run by an ex-felon. Franklin has failed to account for the unaudited, tax-exempt money she raised running an annual local rodeo, which earned about $20,000 each year — funds she promised went to charities and law enforcement. Most troublingly, Franklin is accused of enlisting her office to help bring charges against two people who sought to expose her.

A Morgan County Circuit judge ruled last week that Franklin and one of her deputies engaged in “criminal actions” by misleading the court in seeking a warrant to raid the office of a local blogger who has meticulously tracked Franklin’s activities.

Franklin has denied wrongdoing, writing on Facebook on Sunday that her reputation is being unfairly “defamed and torn apart.”


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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/alabama-sheriff-ana-franklin-probe-use-taxpayer-funds

[MrsCoffee]

1. He can have my thoughts and prayers.

Tho he may not like what I'm thinking and praying for.

[gratuitous]

2. In this case, the sheriff is a she

Which may be why she's in hot water while other sheriffs seem to get a free pass on their shenanigans.

[MrsCoffee]

3. Oops, my bad.

[Scurrilous]

4. I pray her ass is thrown in jail so she can enjoy the fine food served therein.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Read it all folks - the level of grifting and corruption is astounding.

She paid a blogger's grandson to install surveillance software on the blogger's computer to work out who the whistleblower was! And then arrested the whistleblower (now cleared of all charges), and claimed the blogger was breaking the law (she wasn't).

[jmowreader]

6. It's always good to click on links

Some people have one Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. She has four.

Sword 1: Originally claimed she used her savings account and her retirement account to fund the used-car dealership, but used the inmate food money.

Sword 2: The sheriff of her county is not allowed to keep excess food funds for his or her own use. The last guy put his inmates on an all-corn dog diet for three months so he could keep $212,000; this caused a federal consent decree requiring Morgan County to spend all its inmate food money on inmate food. She tends to feed inedible meals.

Sword 3: The Sheriff's Rodeo funds were supposed to go to "charities and law enforcement." (It turns out that Sheriff's Rodeos are conducted all over Alabama, and none of them are required to audit their funds.) She killed two birds with one stone by donating the money to the Morgan County Sheriff's Mounted Posse. I googled it and there really is such a group, but in this day and age mounted posses have one law enforcement function - crowd control at the Fourth of July Parade, where the crowd is pretty controlled by default. They're horse clubs, and that's fine - but please don't call them "law enforcement."

So far, this looks pretty proforma for Alabama sheriffs; they all use the jail food account as their personal piggy banks and they probably all use the rodeo funds for low-level crap.

Sword 4, the one with the thinnest thread: She is accused of targeting multiple anti-Franklin people who spoke out against her. She used false information to get the warrants, which makes them invalid and the searches conducted thereunder illegal.

It occurs to me that a Democrat would probably do well in November by promising to eliminate the excess food fund program and require auditing of Sheriffs Rodeo funds.

[Volaris]

7. It's so UNFAIR that shes being prosecuted for these crimes, isnt it?

When the fuck did the Laws become optional in this country?, because I MISSED that memo, and I'm pretty pissed about it (i coulda saved myself some decent scratch NOT paying my atty for that last batch of traffic tickets)...

[jmowreader]

8. In a way it is

She is getting prosecuted (and needs to be) when others are walking free for committing the same crimes. I'll settle for this sheriff getting sent to a jail in a county that lets the sheriff skim the prisoners' milk money account, but we need to get better about locking people up when they deserve it.

[Volaris]

9. I suppose they can't very well put her in her own damn jail,

Next to all the people she put there (I think that WOULD be unjust, as well as dangerous), can they?

But since she's gotta go somewhere, I would second your suggestion. If she realizes what it feels like to be taken advantage of while literally powerless, she might figure out what an ass she's been, and work to change a corrupt system.

(On Edit) To that end, I think the punishment for financial crimes beyond say a million dollars should be that you need to have all of your assets frozen, minus the equivlant of minimum wage at 40 hours a week for a year, for every year of your sentence, or go the fuck to jail. No available lines of credit, no other income unless you wanna WORK for it. Cheat and go to jail.

Because Republicans don't develope any kinda empathy for anything, until it happens TO THEM. THEN, it's Important.