{"id":1410780,"date":"2025-05-09T14:47:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T19:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1410780"},"modified":"2025-05-30T03:13:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T08:13:53","slug":"east-texas-judge-accused-of-coercing-plea-with-death-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1410780","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: East Texas judge arrested for oppression, witness tampering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" UPDATE:<\/strong> Rains County Justice of the Peace Robert Jenkins Franklin was arrested on Wednesday for two counts of official oppression and two counts of tampering with a witness.<\/p>\n

Franklin is currently being held at the Van Zandt County Detention Center<\/p>\n

ORIGINAL STORY: <\/strong>RAINS COUNTY – An East Texas judge is accused of threatening a defendant, according to a report from our news partner KETK.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, alleges that Justice of the Peace Jenkins Franklin threatened Coby Wiebe to enter a guilty plea in a criminal case over which he had no jurisdiction, saying, \u201cI heard you have a problem with me, boy. You take that deal, boy \u2014 or dead men can\u2019t testify.\u201d Two days later, the defendant entered a no-contest plea in a felony case.<\/p>\n

Wiebe alleges that the threat made in October 2023 is part of a broader pattern of misconduct that Franklin exhibited and went unchecked by county officials, leading to a Monell claim against the county. A Monell claim is based on a 1978 Supreme Court ruling that allows a person to sue local governments for constitutional violations.<\/p>\n

Phone records and a polygraph exam administered to Weibe led the Rains County District Attorney to file a motion to dismiss the felony sentence, and has since been granted judicial clemency.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Defendant [Coby Wiebe] was coerced to testify falsely and to enter a plea of No Contest by an elected official of Rains County [Judge Jenkins Franklin], thus raising significant concerns about the voluntariness of plea.\u2019 The State further urged the court to \u2018set aside the verdict or permit the Defendant to withdraw his plea, dismiss the indictment against him, and that the Defendant be released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the conviction in this case.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Weibe alleges that Franklin\u2019s threat violated his First, Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights as well as official oppression, witness tampering, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis threat was intended to silence [Wiebe] from speaking in open court, suppress future legal action, and force a false narrative,\u201d the lawsuit claims. \u201cAs a result, [Weibe] was intimidated and coerced into providing false testimony, and entering a No Contest plea under duress, calling into question the voluntariness and constitutionality of that plea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaintiff seeks that Franklin not receive judicial immunity as he was not acting as a judge in Wiebe\u2019s criminal case. \u201cSuch conduct was criminal, personal and entirely extrajudicial,\u201d the document reads. \u201cAs a result, judicial immunity is inapplicable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to Franklin\u2019s alleged actions, Wiebe now seeks relief, including actual damages in an amount to be determined at trial, and compensatory damages for mental anguish, emotional distress and loss of liberty. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Rains County Justice of the Peace Robert Jenkins Franklin was arrested on Wednesday for two counts of official oppression and two counts of tampering with a witness. Franklin is currently being held at the Van Zandt County Detention Center ORIGINAL STORY: RAINS COUNTY – An East Texas judge is accused of threatening a defendant, … Continue reading UPDATE: East Texas judge arrested for oppression, witness tampering<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1410790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-29-153110-e1748551019696-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-09 11:54:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-29-153110-e1748551019696-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1410780"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414928,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410780\/revisions\/1414928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1410790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1410780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1410780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1410780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}