Oct. 2—ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of a 2021 sex crime case involving a Rochester man convicted of promoting prostitution and soliciting an individual to practice prostitution, according to appellate court documents filed on Sept. 30.
Andre Leon Franklin, 52, was sentenced to four years in prison in August 2023. Three months later, he filed an appeal.
Franklin was initially charged with promoting prostitution. The prosecution later filed additional charges, including sex trafficking and soliciting an individual to practice prostitution. Ultimately, he was acquitted of sex trafficking.
On Sept. 30, Chief Judge Susan Segal, Judge Matthew E. Johnson and Diane B. Bratvold filed a nonprecedential opinion, in which they addressed Franklin’s arguments that Olmsted County District Court abused its discretion when admitting evidence and that he was entitled to relief based on arguments in his pro se brief.
The court of appeals rules that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting Franklin’s statements about “prostituting other women” as Spreigl evidence, which refers to evidence of other crimes or wrongdoing that are admissible under Minnesota Rules of Evidence.
“We are not persuaded that the district court abused its discretion when it determined that the probative value of the statements was not outweighed by unfair prejudice,” the judges wrote in their opinion.
The court also ruled the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the jail-call statements. District Judge Pamela King, who presided over the case, suppressed recordings of jailhouse calls between Franklin and his brother as hearsay evidence because his brother was not listed as a witness by the prosecution. Soon after, the prosecution filed a formal notice about the use of Spreigl evidence and an amended complaint against Franklin, which included a sex trafficking charge.
One phone call revealed Franklin asking his brother to get ahold of a woman, who Franklin said would bail him out of jail. He then agreed with his brother that the woman would “have to sell a lot of (expletive) there.”
“Franklin argues that this remark is inadmissible hearsay. But even if the brother’s statement qualifies as hearsay, Franklin’s response—’Sure will’ — is an admission, which takes it out of the hearsay context,” the judges wrote.
Lastly, the court ruled that in a pro se brief, Franklin challenged that he was arrested after calling 911 as the “victim of an assault.”
The judges wrote that Franklin is not entitled to relief because “it does not appear that law enforcement committed any misconduct in responding to the situation.”
According to the criminal complaint, the Rochester Police Department responded to a southwest Rochester apartment after Franklin called the police, saying a woman tried to stab him in his apartment.
Officers arrived to see an intoxicated Franklin standing outside. He told an RPD officer that he and the woman “had spent the last few hours together and were having a good time before she flipped her wig.”
The complaint said Franklin had only known the woman for a few days, and she had stayed at his apartment for the last two days. He claimed she was intoxicated and that she had “sold her body,” but he denied telling her to do so.
Though Franklin repeatedly denied asking the woman to have sex for money, he made comments to police about selling other women and even let police look through his cell phone, the complaint said.
“It is just what I do,” Franklin told police.
During an interview later that day, Franklin told an officer the woman asked him if she could make some money “turning a date” with one of Franklin’s upstairs neighbors, the complaint said.
“Turning a date,” is slang often used in sex work to mean meeting someone for paid sexual contact.
The woman told an officer that she had just left a treatment program at Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge, and Franklin had directed her to go upstairs, bring a condom and have sex with his neighbor for $100, according to the complaint.
At the time of the incident on Sept. 25, 2021, Franklin’s neighbor confirmed to police much of the woman’s story and said Franklin made a comment about the neighbor paying him money, the complaint said.
Before Franklin was arrested, an officer watched him ask the man for money again.
Franklin’s sentence will be up in January 2028.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
