HARTSELLE, Ala. — Former Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin has announced her candidacy for a third term, more than six years after leaving office amid federal lawsuits and criminal charges.
Franklin, who served as sheriff from 2011 to 2019, faced multiple allegations of misconduct related to her management of state jail food funds. The Internal Revenue Service also found she filed a late tax return in 2015. Franklin pleaded guilty, resulting in two years of probation.
According to court documents, Franklin used jail food funds to purchase a truck full of corn dogs for inmates and spent $160,000 in leftover funding to finance a used car lot. At the time, Alabama law allowed county sheriffs to keep surplus jail food funds for personal use, a practice later restricted by state legislation…