After 21 years in prison, former Fort Worth officer closer to freedom

Bail was set at $10,000 on Wednesday for a former Fort Worth police officer whose 1995 sexual assault conviction was recently overturned by an appeals court because of a lie.

Brian Edward Franklin’s family hopes to get him out of jail within 24 hours.

But that does not mean Franklin is free.

Tarrant County prosecutor Bill Vassar said he is contacting witnesses and plans to try the case again.

“We are headed to a new trial,” Vassar said. “If the defense would like to plead we will consider that.”

Vassar had asked state District Judge Wayne Salvant to set a $50,000 bail for Franklin, 56, who has been in prison for 21 years after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in her back yard in March 1994.

In a two-page opinion issued April 6, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said Franklin was denied due process because his accuser lied when she testified that she had never had sex before accusing Franklin of raping her.

According to her testimony in a later case, she had been sexually assaulted many times by her stepfather before the alleged sexual assault by Franklin.

“The toughest thing has been knowing that he was wrongfully convicted for all these years,” Paul Franklin, Brian Franklin’s brother, said outside the courtroom Wednesday. “For 21 years he’s been in prison and it’s all been based on false testimony. It’s all been based on a lie.”

The court found that the accuser’s perjured testimony caused other witnesses to give false testimony.

Officials with the Tarrant County district attorney’s office have been reviewing the appeals court decision.

“We will not be dropping the charges in this case,” Vassar said. “We will be pursuing the prosecution of Mr. Franklin for this incident.”

Impacted by another case

In 2014 after a special court hearing in Fort Worth to consider Franklin’s appeal, the state’s highest criminal appeals court ruled that the accuser’s flawed testimony was insufficient to warrant a new trial, said Dick DeGuerin of Houston, one of Franklin’s attorneys.

But the appeals court changed its mind in April and ordered a new trial for Franklin

DeGuerin, while satisfied with the bail amount Salvant set, he would not say that his client was overjoyed, especially with the prosecutor’s stance.

“I’m not sure why the district attorney’s office has taken the attitude that it has,” said DeGuerin, a high-profile attorney based in Houston whose clients have included Tom DeLay, David Koresh and Robert Durst.

“I think the DA’s office ought to read the cards carefully in this case,” DeGuerin said. “[Franklin’s accuser] said her stepfather raped her every day for years.”

Attorney Mike Logan Ware of Fort Worth, who defended Franklin during his initial trial in 1994, said the appeals court changed direction because of a ruling in a 1986 homicide case.

In that case, ex parte Chabot, the appeals court held that when a conviction is significantly based on false testimony, the accused is entitled to relief in the form of a new trial.

“Previously, the prosecutor had to have prior knowledge that the witness was lying,” Ware said. “That case had not come down when they went through Franklin the first time.”

The accuser’s false testimony resulted in a doctor and the mother providing the jury with additional false impressions, according to an affidavit signed by Ware, an adjunct professor at the Texas A&M University Law School and its Innocence Project supervisor.

Stepfather got probation

In the 2014 hearing, Frankin’s accuser remained adamant that Franklin assaulted her, but she said her stepfather had sexually assaulted her at least a year before Franklin did — and continued to sexually assault her during Franklin’s trial.

The Star-Telegram does not typically identify accusers in sexual assault cases.

Prosecutors had no DNA evidence tying Franklin to the rape. Instead, the case rested almost entirely on the accuser’s testimony.

“It’s a simple case,” DeGuerin said in 2014. “A conviction cannot stand if it’s based on perjury, in whole or part. That’s just basic fairness and due process.”

The stepfather was later sentenced to 10 years of probation after pleading guilty to injury to a child as part of a plea arrangement. He died in February.

Ramesh Wadhwa, a former inmate in a Rosharon prison at the same time as Franklin, attended Wednesday’s bail hearing. He said he believes that Franklin did not commit the crime for which he was convicted.

Wadhwa, 68, said he was convicted of a second-degree murder charge in Dallas County and spent 11 years in the penitentiary, and knew Franklin for most of those years.

Franklin was his only friend, Wadhwa said.

“There are a lot of people in prison, including myself, who are guilty,” Wadhwa said. “But Franklin is not one of them.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 4:56 PM with the headline "After 21 years in prison, former Fort Worth officer closer to freedom."