I have asked the Harris County District Attorney to investigate Judge Alicia Franklin to determine if she provided false CPS pay vouchers to the county when she was a lawyer.  This week, I will finally mail off to the D.A. my letter about Gary Polland, who did the same thing as Franklin (just a lot more of it).  Actually, I have asked D.A. Anderson to recuse herself and ask for the appointment of a prosecutor pro tem to investigate if the crime of tampering with a government record was committed.

In 2000, two Harris County Justices of the Peace were convicted of tampering with a government record.  Republican J.P. Mark Fury plead no contest to several counts for submitting false pay records for his employees.  Democrat J.P. Betty Brock Bell was found guilty by a jury for applying for a disabled parking placard when she was not disabled. 

Neither of those offenses seem nearly as bad as falsely billing the county for legal work on CPS cases.  To me, submitting an invoice in the name of one attorney that includes work the attorney did not do is false billing, as is inflating hours worked. Franklin and Polland contend they did nothing wrong and a grand jury may determine that no criminal act was committed.  Acting sleazy is not always criminal and determining whether Franklin or Polland committed a crime is up to higher and more reputable authorities than me.  However, there is ample precedent for applying the crime of tampering with a government record to the act of signing a false form and submitting it to the government.  The narrow question for Franklin and Polland will be whether those CPS pay voucher forms were specific enough to make how they billed "knowingly making a false entry" since both were supposedly including time for work others had done, even though that was not disclosed on the form. 

Polland and Franklin would argue that the pay voucher forms had no blanks or spaces to show who did the work that was being billed for.  I contend that if I submit a pay voucher form for GREG ENOS and show time spent on a case, that I am saying I did that work unless I make some note that my associate or paralegal did the work and there was plenty of space on that form to make such notations.  Given that it appears clear under the law that ad litem attorneys are not supposed to be paid for work done by others, judges would normally have no reason to ask if the ad litem's bill includes such work.  Unfortunately, such illegal billing by ad litems for work done by others was obviously allowed in most courts and that may well be part of the defense for Polland and Franklin - the judges let us bill illegally and they knew we were doing it.  Click here if you want to read my article explaining why ad litem and amicus attorneys are not supposed to be paid for work done by others. 

I would frankly prefer that my complaints be investigated after the election, so no one can say it is just a partisan smear campaign (like Franklin's public relations guy said).  Of course, Devon Anderson may face an opponent in the Republican primary in just two years and she will need Gary Polland's support more than ever, so politics will never be totally out of this conversation.

We will soon have four new associate judges in Harris County and I will closely research what they billed in CPS cases in recent years.  The issue of bilking taxpayers in CPS cases and the big fees made in court appointments is not going away.