Franklin plans to address jail staffing issues, patrol coverage in unincorporated areas.
Updated: Jan. 27, 2026, 8:22 a.m.Morgan County Sheriff's OfficeFormer Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin said she did not plan on running for the office again eight years opting out of seeking a third term.
“I haven’t been cussed out, shot at, stalked by criminals, sued, or slandered in years,” Franklin told AL.com. “That’s not been terrible.” But Franklin, who served as sheriff from 2011-19, said she’s been asked by members of the community to run again. And now that her legal troubles involving a $150,000 loan from the local jail’s inmate meal money to a now-closed bankrupt used car lot are behind her, Franklin feels the timing is right. Franklin will be challenging incumbent Sheriff Ron Puckett in the May 19 Republican primary. “Over the years, and especially this past year after I prevailed in my final case, many people have asked me to run again,” Franklin said, “Current and former deputies, corrections officers, and first responders that work with the current administration every day were the first people that came to me about conditions in the jail and the problems in the office and our community.” She said residents are speaking to her about the lack of proactive law enforcement and visibility in their neighborhoods. “I have spoken to people in community and charitable organizations that have repeatedly told me about the lack of communication and involvement from the sheriff and the office,” Franklin said. “Inmates and former inmates and their families have also spoken to me about the terrible conditions in the jail. That’s a huge motivator for me.”That said, she admits unseating Puckett, whom she calls “a friend of mine and a very kind person” will not be easy because of the allegations of mismanagement that hounded her final years in office. “I’m very concerned because the media and the online bloggers, content creators and generally misinformed keyboard warriors aren’t always interested in the truth.” Franklin said. “Clicks are really important and scandalous headlines get clicked. The first story that aired about this race was riddled with false statements and incorrect information. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been blamed with the corndog fiasco and starving the inmates.” Franklin replaced Sheriff Greg Bartlett, who had been dubbed “Sheriff Corndog,” because he legally pocketed more than $200,000 of the jail’s food budget while inmates ate corndogs twice a day. A judge put Bartlett in federal lockup forSome of the allegations against Franklin centered around the loan to the car lot. The loan was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and was a subject of a local blogger who was critical of Franklin during her time in office. The loan was paid back to the inmate food fund. The inmate meal money controversy was one of several incidents that plagued the latter half of Franklin’s final term as sheriff. A Morgan County judge issued a scathing order that said Franklin and along with deputies Blake Robinson, Robert “Bones” Wilson and Justin “JP” Powell had acted criminally during an investigation into fired jail warden Leon Bradley and Glenda Lockhart, the local blogger who has been critical of Franklin for years. The warden was arrested on a misdemeanor at the culmination of the investigation, but the judge dismissed the charge. Franklin was also the subject of multiple lawsuits, including one by Bradley, who accused the sheriff of using her office to go after her opponents.“I think that the citizens would be proud that I withstood the devastating slander and persecution and fought for the truth,” she said. “I worked through my court battles and justice eventually prevailed. I went through the legal process and proved my innocence of these allegations. I was never arrested, indicted, or convicted of any of the allegations. I admitted to filing my taxes late and I was punished severely for that. The media reported the clickable, horrendous-sounding, headlines and the online commentators expanded on those and made it even worse.” Franklin was sentenced to two years of probation and 300 hours of community service for a federal charge of failing to file a tax return. Franklin didn’t file a federal tax return for 2015 — the year she loaned the $150,000 from the inmate meal money to the car lot.that she was not indicted in the case, although he said there were attempts at an indictment. “The judge handling the case stated in substance that there are many people all across the U.S. who file late but don’t face prosecution,” Gray said. “He also stated that there was no criminal loss to the government. This was simply an attempt to assert that Sheriff Franklin had to pay taxes on money that she owned and loaned to try to improve the jail food money account.” Gray said he helped Franklin file a petition against the IRS, which was tried in court. He said the judge ruled that Franklin loaned the money and no taxes were owed. “It was all returned and ultimately Sheriff Franklin left approximately $50,000 for the incoming sheriff ,” Gray said.With the legal matters behind her, including the lawsuits, Franklin said she would do as she did at the beginning of her first term if she returned to the office. She said she would “assess everyone and their duties, and every policy that has changed since I left.” “I would look at the things that are currently working and keep or adjust those, and the other issues would be changed immediately,” Franklin said. “The staff needs help, support, and leadership with a clear directive of mission. The turnover rate for both the jail and the enforcement division is a huge concern. Until this administration, historically, most of the staff stayed at the county and made it their career- even with less pay than other agencies. Lack of experience and turnover is a very concerning issue and one which I will have to quickly address.”“There have been multiple deaths, inmate and corrections assaults, escapes, and budgetary and short staffing issues,” she said. “This has to be addressed and corrected immediately.” Franklin said because of a change in patrol directives, “the unincorporated areas of the county that rely most heavily on the deputies for law enforcement are not being served as they were when I was sheriff.”Franklin also said the department would immediately return to assisting volunteer fire departments on mental health calls and suicide threats. “We would focus heavily on mental health issues and have deputies trained and dedicated to those calls again,” she said. “We would bring back the SVU as a separate division and focus on sex offenders and victims in that division exclusively again. We did monthly sex offender residential checks with our patrol units and other agencies. This has not happened regularly until recently during this election cycle.” Scott Turner covers growth, economic development in the Huntsville area for AL.com and the Huntsville Times. A veteran journalist, his career includes coverage of politics, environmental, military, veteran,...
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