Abigail Ticse, right, and Joyce McDonald, prosecutors with the Office of the State Prosecutor, leave Anne Arundel County Circuit Court following the sentencing of former Prince George’s Councilmember Jamel “Mel” Franklin. Photo by Bryan P. Sears.
Jamel “Mel” Franklin, a former Prince George’s County Council member described as a once-rising political star who was a sought-after candidate for county executive, could spend the next year in jail after pleading guilty to stealing from his own campaign account.
Franklin’s defense team offered dozens of letters from family and friends and politicians attesting to their client’s character and good works in the hope of avoiding jail. In the end, Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Mark W. Crooks sided with prosecutors who sought a short term of incarceration for Franklin.
“The sort of dipping in the cookie jar, so to speak, happened over a really attenuated, lengthy period of time,” Crooks said, speaking directly to Franklin. “That’s what’s so concerning, you had off-ramps along the way where you could have sought help.”
The three-term councilmember was charged in June with two dozen counts, including theft, embezzlement and more than a dozen counts of perjury. Franklin resigned his seat on the council and reached a plea agreement with the Office of the State Prosecutor prior to the charges being made public.
Franklin faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine for the theft scheme charge. The perjury charge carried a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Bruce Marcus, Franklin’s attorney, called Wednesday’s sentencing hearing “a day of reckoning” for his client, who he said had been “brought low” by his public fall from grace, which also includes the loss of Franklin’s license to practice law.
“There is nothing I can tell you that would suggest to you that there’s more that could happen to him than has already happened,” said Marcus, in pleading for leniency for his client.
The defense attorney said his client’s life spiraled following the death of his mother, a failing marriage, a stroke suffered by his sister and a battle with esophagitis that requires medication and caused dramatic weight loss, as well as struggles with alcohol abuse.
Marcus added that his client had recently started a consulting business. A jail sentence would potentially end that effort and Franklin’s ability to rebuild his reputation and repay the money stolen from the campaign account.
Marcus submitted more than two dozen letters from elected officials, family members, friends and community leaders. Included in the filings were letters from Sen. Joanne Benson (D-Prince George’s), Prince George’s County Councilmember Edward Burroughs III and Melanie Miller, the daughter of former Maryland State Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr.
Franklin, in his own two-page letter to Crooks, apologized for his actions.
“I do not believe the violations of the public trust that I committed are the end of my story,” Franklin wrote. “I will be a better, more faithful person and a better Christian. I will work to eliminate the problems I have had with alcohol abuse. And I will work every day to rebuild the trust that I destroyed for so many people who believed in me.
“I particularly regret the poor example I have set for my two children, Jamel and Alexis. I love them more than anything in this world and will do everything in my power to be a far better father to them than I have been before,” he wrote
Franklin also spoke briefly in court repeating the regrets expressed in his letter.
Crooks sentenced Franklin, 50, to five years in jail for the theft charge with all but one year suspended. Franklin also received a five-year sentence for perjury with all five years suspended. The former councilman will also serve three years of supervised probation.
During that time, he will be required to repay his campaign account more than $133,000. The money will ultimately be distributed to a charitable organization — the Excellence in Education Foundation for PGCPS Inc., a nonprofit that awarded $200,000 in scholarships in the last school year.
Once released from jail, Franklin will be required to make annual restitution payments of $44,389 during each of the three years of his probation.
Crooks also ordered Franklin, who acknowledged a problem with alcohol, to abstain from drinking, obtain counseling and mental health treatment. Franklin was charged twice within four days in September with driving under the influence of alcohol, according to a memorandum filed in court by Marcus.
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Franklin will begin serving his sentence — which Crooks called an “involuntary period of quietude” — on Nov. 30.
“You need to use this experience, in my opinion, as a period of self-reflection, to sort of chart out the course of the second half of your life,” Crooks said to Franklin. “Commit to yourself that it will be productive, and the lessons of this experience will be applied to that second half.
“I was glad to hear that you started that business. The danger, I think, in a moment in time like this, is that you just remain an engine in fifth gear,” Crooks said. “My advice, which you could take or leave, is to take a moment to throttle back to second or even first gear, because jail truly is a moment of involuntary quietude where you actually sort of commit yourself to what the arc of the second half of your life looks like.”
Franklin can seek a sentence modification. His defense attorney filed that motion during the sentencing hearing. Crooks said he would take up that matter at a later date.
Prosecutors left the courthouse without comment to reporters. Franklin left by a side door, accompanied by his father, a brother and sister.
The sentencing in Anne Arundel County caps a case that began six months ago.
Franklin signed a plea agreement with state prosecutors on May 30. The deal was finalized two weeks before he abruptly resigned from the county council.
A week later, prosecutors publicly announced the charges against Franklin.
Franklin “admitted to stealing” more than $124,000 in campaign funds between 2020 and October 2023, according to state prosecutors.
Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Abigail Ticse told Crooks that Franklin “led a life of many actions.” None, she argued, offset his breach of public trust.
“He wasn’t just stealing his donors’ money,” Ticse said in court. “It was also the theft of transparency in Prince George’s County elections. He was trusted by the public, the people who trusted him to be their voice in the county, who were making donations to his campaigns, and it was that trusted position that gave Mr. Franklin access to everything he needed to commit these crimes, these long-term crimes.”
He used the money to repay personal loans and credit card debt. He also used campaign funds to pay the rent on his apartment and for international travel and personal subscriptions. He further admitted to spending $11,500 on cosmetic procedures for himself and an unidentified “close friend,” according to prosecutors.
Franklin also admitted to using an additional $8,718 in campaign funds between 2021 and December 2023 for noncampaign expenses. Franklin then committed perjury when he signed doctored campaign finance reports that hid the expenditures.
“This is a lot of money. It wasn’t a one-off,” Ticse said. “This took work. It took years of work. It took planning, which ultimately let him steal over $130,000. He had to evade the detection of the public in these reports, in the filing with the state board of elections. He also had to avoid their auditors, not just by falsifying the reports, but by doing so in a way that they look legit.”
Crooks agreed, telling Franklin it was difficult for him to overlook the effect his actions had on the public at a time when distrust of government and elected officials is prevalent. Crooks said he was worried about donors who made contributions for “the first time ever … because they saw something in you that inspired them, different from the negative stereotypes that abound in politicians, especially these days.”
“Maybe that’s the last time they’ll donate,” Crooks said. “And those are the things that really concern the court, because that is the public confidence.”