The charges finally hit the fan聽for Bruce Franks, a former 50度灰视频 activist and state legislator who has been the subject of an Arizona criminal probe since early 2023.
The Pinal County Attorney鈥檚 Office last week charged Franks with 10 felonies: nine counts of forgery and one count of theft.
, which has been following the story since it first surfaced last year, Franks is slated to appear in court on Oct. 21. Each charge is punishable by one year to 45 months in prison.
The case that has Franks under scrutiny, first聽reported by this bureau聽in August, also led to the resignations of two high-ranking officials from the Maricopa County Democratic Party.
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One of those officials was party executive director Ne鈥橪exia Galloway, who was Franks鈥 fianc茅e at the time. (Axios reports that Franks and Galloway are now married.)
Last year, Arizona media reported that the Maricopa County Democratic Party spent about $24,500 to have nearly 120,000 flyers printed and mailed out to area residents.
In apparent violation of the party鈥檚 conflict of interest policy, Galloway instructed a consulting company to subcontract the work to a business Franks started in 2021 鈥 and also told consultants not to mention that the work was assigned to Franks.
The case also included allegations that Postal Service mailing forms were falsified to give the appearance that the mailers were distributed, even though they were not.
Franks returned the money to the consulting company, which in turn reimbursed the county Democratic party, Arizona media reported last year.
Axios reported that Franks鈥 attorney, Steve Benedetto, declined to comment on last week鈥檚 filing of charges.
Maricopa County Democratic Party chair Jon Ryder told Axios, 鈥淔or the past little over a year we鈥檝e been busy rebuilding the party from the damage that was done鈥 by the incident.
For those who may not recall, Franks hit the 50度灰视频 spotlight during the 2014 Ferguson protests after Michael Brown was killed by a police officer.
Riding a wave of media exposure, Franks was elected to the Missouri House in 2016 and then reelected in 2018.
Shortly after his reelection, Franks began to experience legal and financial problems here in 50度灰视频.
First, he filed for bankruptcy in 2019. Then, KMOV (Channel 4) reported there were discrepancies in time sheets submitted by Franks to a taxpayer-funded jobs agency where he worked. He resigned his legislative seat shortly after the television story hit the air in 2019.
During his time here, Franks also ran afoul of the Missouri Ethics Commission for allegedly using campaign donations for personal expenses, and also failing to file accurate reports involving thousands of dollars.
In early 2020, Franks also was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary short, 鈥50度灰视频 Superman.鈥