Michael Francke /// Coward of Broward /// True Crime Garage | Forensic Files

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] one day it started raining in Columbus and it's never going to stop never
welcome to Portland yeah I'm building an arc um and collecting two of every animal so uh fear not my friends well
I'm building a moat around the garage so we can have an Empire there was I'm going to call this
an update Captain I don't know how much of an update it is we'll have to wait to
see what happens hold our breath and see what happens here but the headline from
The Oregonian says Frank Gable excited at the prospect of Freedom as state considers option in Michael Frankie case
so most of you will remember we covered the Michael Frankie case last year in October uh October 9th and 10th of last
year episodes 245 and 246 and that case is Michael Frankie he was the Oregon Corrections director he
was murdered 30 years ago on January 17th 1989 in Salem and if you recall correctly he was leaving work that day
from from what they have dubbed the Dome building and on the way to his vehicle there was some type of struggle that was
obvious M and he was stabbed to death well Frank Gable is the man that was eventually arrested and tried and
convicted in that case well the the headline that came out that was that I read was from April 19th of this year
and the reason why I say that I don't know that that it's much of an update and we'll have to wait and see what
happens is it sounds like certain people are trying to make some movement to write a
wrong but you know how the court system works it's it's slow it's slow and then there are other people that are trying
to to stop this completely so the idea is that we have a judge that came in and said look this guy Frank Gable uh the
judge says you know I believe that he is innocent of this crime he's been in prison I think since
1991 and he got life with no with with no possible parole was his conviction so this judge is saying look this guy is
innocent and we should either do one of two things release him or retry him and I believe that in
April they put like a 90day there was 90 days on this thing to to figure it out to come to some kind of
conclusion well we have the mar the Maran County district attorney Paige Clark she has
assigned two prosecutors to reexamine this case and now the case includes thousands of Records old tape cassettes
of police interviews and transcripts from The 4-month Trial that took place in 1991 so they're going to review those
things but I think really the the most fascinating thing to me about this whole situation is we have the victim's family
we have his brothers Kevin and Patrick who they came forward in a long time ago uh I believe in the mid90s they came
forward and they said hey this guy that's that's sitting in prison for the murder of our brother we believe him to
be innocent and the way that this this kind of crumbled and and and fell apart very quickly was this man Frank Gable
was basically convicted off of these eyewitness accounts and these aren't people that if I recall correctly these
aren't people that said they saw him kill Michael Frankie right these are individuals that say that they knew that
he killed him because of this this or this and those people lay came forward and said look I was coerced
into giving that confession right and then there was one individual that said I I made up a story and told it to
the police just because I didn't like Frank Gable he he had a beef with Frank Gable so he he made up some kind of
story well so now we've learned all these years later that what convicted this guy and I believe you and I really
questioned the conviction when we covered the case because all these people recanted their their story so
that that's like that's like convicting somebody on DNA and then finding out later the DNA is wrong we were
completely wrong and so the evidence if you want to call it that convicted this dude it does not exist anymore right and
but it's also going that DNA evidence is wrong and by the way it's wrong because the the prosecutors and the
detectives created that DNA mhm so that becomes an issue and it's always going to be an issue on the idea look I I
wouldn't want to be in their shoes you have pressure to solve these cases you have pressure to charge somebody with
this there's a man dead somebody needs to be held responsible but we got to get back to a time where it's more about the
truth and not just well we convicted somebody right right and so the state has has come forward and said well you
know we we wanted to appeal this decision of either retrying him or releasing him and I don't know the the
details of this because I'm sure that they're not releasing everything that's happening in these discussions behind
closed doors but my guess would be that they're probably more so appealing the thought of just releasing this guy MH
cuz I think probably the the the most the best way to handle this would probably be to retry him maybe they can
make a determination in advance if if he's allowed to be out on bail or something during you know leading up to
that re retrial I would love to figure out with these old cassettes of the police
interviews because a couple of these people that gave statements incriminating statements
of Frank Gable they've said that look I didn't witness anything I didn't really know anything I just happened to know
Frank Gable and I told them in advance I didn't know anything that I I don't have
a story to tell you because I don't I don't know anything right and then later saying I made up a story or I you know
they helped me fabricate a story and I gave that statement because I felt that I was being threatened by the police by
the the interrogators and so I would love to see on here if they can figure out you know
if we have these tape cassettes of the police interviews I would love to know if they
can figure out hey are are these police officers that are doing and leading these interrogations are they are they
stopping the tape MH you know and then then it starts up again later stopping the tape starts up again later i' i'
like to see that should be pretty easy to determine that right away but it it's it's really fascinating to me because
most of the time when you see something like this it's the victim's family that comes forward and they're like you can't
let this guy out of prison you can't he doesn't deserve a retrial this guy's absolutely you know
guilty of killing our loved one mm and this is the complete opposite of that we have not only do we have two brothers
that have been very vocal about saying look not only do we believe Frank Gable to be innocent
but we believe that we know who might hold the answers to this case because if Frank Gable is innocent
then this is an unsolved crime so they have pushed forward and said very publicly that they believe a man named
John Krauss to I don't think they necessarily think that John Krauss killed their
brother I think what they're saying is John Krauss knows who did this or had or had some invol involvement with it so
but again not only saying these things publicly but they've also been raising money and awareness to this case M
because it probably would have just went away and Frank Gable would have been rotted away in a prison cell for the
rest of his life no parole and it would have just been forgotten about so uh interesting what the the Frankie family
is doing uh to to help this thing along so 90 days from April from the mid of April so we should have something May
June July we should have something I would think by July a a determination of what to do in this case yeah but it's
very very scary to think that you could be charged with something that you weren't involved in and then you just
sit and wait for a very like you said Slow system to work itself out right and and that's when they award people a
lot of money for sitting in prison but you know money doesn't give you time no you know and so it's very no but but
what it could do is help provide him for a better defense if he is tried again um this is one of those weird cases
because remember we had we we mentioned at least three other suspects that I can
think of and the big thing that the judge is saying here is not only not only do we
have these people who have recanted their statements MH maybe these people are just liars or whatever maybe maybe
maybe they were telling the truth but he's saying on top of that we have we had other suspects that were not
presented at trial you know so the the jury and the judges should have cons they would have taken that into
consideration that there were other suspects one and two we have John Krauss who did confess to the murder of Michael
Frankie at one point however in all fairness he gave multiple stories to the police
and the problem with that is we have judges who have reviewed his statements and say look most of them don't line up
with what we know occurred during this crime during this murder but there there is one of the
stories that that lines up pretty good but it's difficult when you have a guy that that's given multiple stories call
them confessions some of them including him as the murderer and other confessions that do not include him as
the murderer of Michael Frankie yeah well well that's a good update and and hopefully some changes happen soon there
I kind of want your opinion on this I was looking up this stuff on Scott Peterson not the not the Scott Peterson
that we all know and love to hate yeah love to hate but I guess this one this guy's uh Boward County sheriff and he
was assigned to um Douglas High School the Parkland shootings in Florida and he was arrested
about a month ago and so the question then becomes is cowardice a a crime you know
he is hired to protect the school he did not they have surveillance footage of him hiding for almost an
hour um he never set foot in the school that he was sworn to protect and I believe he's uh charged with seven
felony uh counts because he took cover outside instead of trying to stop the shooter
he will be the first police officer charged in any school shooting event um and there's a lot of rage towards
this individual I have not even seen anybody that came forward to say to to have his back on
anything right and but I think it's very difficult to be the one or one to have his
back it's not not so much a question of here we have a situation it's not a question of did he do it or did he not
do it we we have we know he didn't yeah right right and I don't know this he's called the coward of Boward right right
and I think this is a difficult one because I never like to so much have a have a hard and fast
rule on on how someone should behave when they scared to death right okay and obviously he didn't do what we all would
have expected him to do what he agreed to do when he took the oath to Serve and Protect he didn't do
any of that um but we got to keep in mind he didn't do that because he was scared and Afraid for his own life his
own safety yeah and that that I think that's the big question is did he you know
look is there a crime here is there a crime here because what happened you know 11 minutes after after the shooting
began and he was hiding police officers arrived there were 17 dead um there were
17 injured and and Peterson kept hiding right he didn't you know once the other police officers were there it wasn't
like Peterson sprung into action and said here we we go and and we don't know you know maybe Peterson has never been
tested as far as the fight or flight mentality I've said this before I was doing bear crawls where you're really
low to the ground and to the right of where we're doing bear crawls were box jumps and box
jumps are notorious for if you miss you can get some nasty cuts on your shins well I saw some lady Shin get split from
her ankle to her knee and it like opened up and it looked like you know whale blubber was spewing out and I instantly
got up put my hands in the air and walked to the other side of the gym going oh my God and that was my
first real uh moment of I mean I'm sure there was moments when I was a kid but the first
one where I was like that that's fight or flight and I was not fighting I took off running um where a lot of people
once she's like oh something is wrong there's a bunch of people that ran to her real quickly you know and so then it
becomes to me it's like was Peterson even in control of himself you know fight or flight or
fight or or or hide you just wonder if he was just just so in shock that he hid and
just was frozen and should he be charged with these seven seven F felony accounts
it it's weird to me we normally charge people for their actions not in action well I I will say outright that I
that I'm a huge proponent of you know fire him take away his pension yeah because he I mean he's not a police
officer let's let's let's face it he may have wore the uniform and carried a badge and gun for years but he's at the
heart of it he's not what he signed up to do so he should not get any of the benefits of of being that so take away
that I do think he does need to be charged with something because I don't mind setting
the precedent to to individuals going forward that sign up for this let's face it this very dangerous job but I don't
mind setting a precedent to to weed I think what it does is it weeds out these types from going into that occupation no
I I understand what you're where you're coming from but I I don't know if he if he should get seven charges um I I don't
think he should get any cuz one he he didn't do anything like you said if if you're and I don't want to speak speak
out of turn but as far as like with uh you know the Marines or Army like if you do actions or you don't do actions if
you're supposed to uh do something in a test environment and you're supposed to you know say you're playing capture of
the flag and you decide that you're just going to hide the whole time and and not
participate they'll get rid of you and he signed up for a job he he's not fit to do that job
okay you're done you're not doing that job and whatever benefits that you're supposed to get for signing up to do
that job you're not you don't get those you're not privileged to get those because you're not you did not do the
job that's fine as far as criminal charges I have a issue with that because again what did he do that was criminal
what is the charge coward he's a coward well look he's going to be branded that his whole life and and he deserves so so
fine be that but the problem I have with setting example for this is you can go back to
1999 and look at how they responded to Coline and it was not correct and that was the protocol and they have since
change that protocol but it it was correct according to protocol it's not the best way to handle that situation we
now know that right and then they changed the protocol M and that changed the way law enfor you know law
enforcement studied that situation and said what can we do better they did not charge every officer that sat there for
hours with their you know essentially doing the same thing but in that situation you can't because they're
obeying orders so to speak because they're following at Coline they were following
protocol right I understand that but what's this protocol never States once where his
protocol where he didn't follow protocol well from my understanding most jurisdictions if not all of them have
adopted this new uh protocol to to you you go in and go after the shooter where at Coline the reason the
why they handled it that way back then was they didn't they didn't understand the nature of that crime and of that
attack so typically protocol would be that when you have an armed person or persons in a building or structure and
essentially they they it's a hostage situation is the way they treated it and the protocol then was to you start
communicating with the hostage taker and you're trying to talk them down and what they've really realized
and learned and and we have as well that in these school shooting situations especially in the school shooting
situations it's it is not a hostage situation so therefore you have to handle it differently it's it's
basically someone going in there with the they don't want to take any hostages they're attempting to shoot as many
people as as as they desire and therefore you have to go become the aggressor and go after the
shooter because they're not there to take hostages I get what you're saying he he's done nothing different than than
how we used to handle this situation with the exception of when his brothers in blue his sisters and blue
showed up to the scene he still remained in hiding um he he should have at the very
least joined them um but I I don't know I right but again my issue is that we can't measure
this officer's fear we can't um measure what Terror was going through his brain what trauma happened to him as a
kid that there's so many things that could play into this where maybe if it was on a Tuesday and he had a little
more coffee it would be different or if he was in a different state of mind when
it happened it could be different it to me it seems like this individual was struck by fear and Terror
and that enabled him to do his job and yes that makes you unfit to continue to ever do that job but it's
hard to measure that and it's hard to know like I said we don't know if if it happened on a different time or and it
would be different to me if he did oh other officers are here then he Springs into
action he didn't he continued to hide and again to me it's like to me that's more signs that this overwhelming fear
took him over and made him enable to do almost anything so and I think it would be
different if he not only did he hide but once the other police officers got there
he that he took off that he ran away yeah I I think it really shows that he was enabled uh to do
anything and it's like look the guy's going to be called a coward rightfully so you know uh but I I really just don't
see it's inactive he's inactive so therefore he he's responsible and and the other
thing too is it's it's really has changed um kind of the narrative more people seem upset about this police
officer the good guy with a gun because we believe a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a
gun but this officer did not go into a school and shoot anybody correct correct and and that's that's the real piece of
[ __ ] here well of course and and and so I I don't know it it I I see both sides I mean I could see but and I think
the difference too is when you go okay well he might be hit with seven felony accounts okay what does that mean time
served what does it mean what does he get for that what's the outcome of that and and when I'm looking through some of
these reports about it it's not really clear I haven't really been able to find where it says that he's facing up to
10 years in prison or I thought I saw 70 70 years um and that's and that's just ridiculous because because we don't know
you don't know how you would react you can sit there but we're paying him to react a certain way that's the
difference between between a civilian and an officer and no I understand that but the but where it
becomes where it becomes a little convoluted is what if that officer has a heart attack what if that officer has
anxiety attack what if that officer has some kind of whatever it is you know I I I don't know I don't know I because I
think I just think there that's a blurry line and and we don't know how you would
react we don't know how I'd react we don't know how any of these officers that have never been through that we do
not know how they would react we would like to think we would know and maybe this
guy maybe the coward of Boward thought he would react differently you know and I'd like to see
what his record was before you know I know for example at my high school we had a cop and the reason why he
became the cop at the high school was because he was continuously the last one to arrive at
any scene so but that is again that's before that's you know 96 97 98 this is before the national awareness of of
these what possibly horrible things can happen out of school I wonder today would they put that same officer at that
high school well that knowing that he had an inability he would be the closest to a scene and get there last you know
but I I think that too is part of part of the issue that needs to be examined yeah was this officer there as more of a
punishment rather than a a post right and but but but then does that become his problem or does that become the
higher Up's problem it should it it's both of their problems right but should they be charged with 70 years for
putting the wrong guy at the wrong position but here's here's where America you know a lot of people react to the
headlines and you got to read the story because being charged with seven felony counts and facing up to 70 years in
prison we need to know the details of those charges because most of the time we charge somebody with with several
counts of something that could if convicted on all of all seven accounts would would end up 70 years in prison
but the way that that's typically structured is that you can't be guilty of several of those other charges if
you're guilty of some of those charges yeah meaning that there's varying degrees of the same charge so in this
situation I think what what's very likely to happen would probably have a situation where he'll he'll get
convicted of one of these charges and that may only carry 3 to 5 years of of probation it may carry a a light um
prison sentence I again though I'm I'm for I'm for setting the precedent of of holding individuals accountable for what
they are paid to do what they how they are paid to react to a situation and Obey protocol now regarding what you
said about the the police department and and I actually I think you're probably right in this situation I bet you this
was was not considered by his his you know co-workers to be a great cop and he may have been posted there more as a
punishment rather than um anything else and and I I know of of like you said with our high school that it was kind of
give give the guy that really nobody nobody really trust him in the field to do the right thing or or to have their
back so a treny cop let's just put them at at the school I would like to see you
know and I know that some jurisdictions some police departments do that with the
bicycle cops as well I've I've heard from it's not a rule it's not on any books but if you talk to talk to some of
the guys they'll tell you yeah you you get bicycle Patrol in in this department you get b b bicycle Patrol as a as a
punishment so you know well yeah they could put me on a bike and I'd still be the first one there but the
um I I I'm am more of a fan I I am a fan of having some type of law enforcement or security at these schools I think it
only makes sense it makes so much sense that it's stupid not to do it I think a better a person better suited for this
situation may be exmilitary um because we're we're really talking about a situation well this is like a
oneman SWAT unit is basically what it is if you put one cop out of school and a shooting breaks out MH how many
shooters that's the that's the other thing is this is hindsight we know that there's one shooter well again at the
Coline they thought there was possibly five Shooters they don't go in they later find out that there's not five
shooters or or a group of Shooters there's a a big group of Shooters there's two right so then they go oh
well we made this mistake we go in Faster how does he know how many shooters there are right but and so then
you want a what if a police officer goes in and there is five Shooters no I I understand the situation
but that I'm not the one writing the protocol I'm just saying he didn't follow protocol and that's that is the
essentially the the problem and the issue here I'm not I don't even go as far to fault him for not going after the
shooter I fought I fult him for you know the job is protect and serve in this situation serving would be going after
the shooter protecting would have been to help evacuate people out of there or or to add some kind of assistance to get
people out of there faster away from the shooter if you're too chicken [ __ ] to go
after the shooter at least have the stones to to try to help some of these children get out of out of the building
and and he did nothing he he he crawled under a rock and and stayed there and which I understand but then again the
question to me then goes back to it did did he get struck with something that was out of his control right but that's
that's where the court system comes in he's he will have the opportunity to State his case and to defend
himself yeah and what they're saying is look I I have no I understand the idea that you make an
example out of somebody but I think this is very this is a lot more complex than
people think it's not just as oh it's incredibly comp complex I I don't and I and I think you
know we have to be careful um about this but there there has never been a police officer that has
been prosecuted for their actions involving an active shooter but Le but the legal experts say it's
unlikely um that he'll be convicted on most of the charges right right and I agree with that like I said I think
he'll end up getting convicted of one of these lesser charges with a with a slap
on the wrist so to speak but but it I mean it goes to me it's no different than than a pilot showing up to fly the
plane and he's intoxicated or hung over from the night before or you know th those that warrants charges in my mind
or or a doctor that you know commits malpractice people need to be right right but the but what they're saying
and I and I actually agree with them they're saying that just him being arrested shows that hey if you're an
officer right that you know and that's all I'm saying we can't give this guy 70 years to make him a example moving
forward the arrest starts with making him an example maybe there's probation loss of a job whatever but he is not the
scumbag that went in there and started shooting people he's the coward and again we don't know nobody can say for
certain I don't even think the coward of Boward could say for certain that if it
didn't happen two hours later or 2 hours before or a day later later you know what I mean but I don't even know what
that means because that's like saying it's like saying oh Nick you robbed a you know I robbed a bank because I was
broke but but if I wasn't broke or no no no what no that you're I think you're misunderstanding we don't know for sir
we don't know for certain if his inactiveness was was something that was voluntary
that he chose to do or he was in or was he enabled to do right and that's why you charge him and then he has the
chance to defend himself and state his case in court right I I get that but and and also I I want to be clear you know I
don't I don't like reacting to the headlines I don't think that there is a possibility that he could face 70 years
in prison that's that's just the headlines that's to get people in and get people
talking get people discussing the issue it's again it's very likely that it's structured so that it's
impossible to be convicted of all seven well right meaning if you're guilty of B
you cannot be guilty of A and C as well because it because it's set up that way right and this is why I think it's so
gray is if you're a pilot that got drunk the night before that was your action well his action's running and hiding it
it's right but it's not it's not like he no the reason why that's gray is I I question if that is a choice or his body
choosing that for him and that's where I think it's gray I think it's different when you decide to stay up at night
drinking or you just you go to the job with a drink I [Music] think that there's a big difference
between that and I I don't know if what he was doing was voluntary or involuntary
[Music] [Applause]

Michael Francke /// Coward of Broward /// True Crime Garage Off The Record /// Episode:60 Recorded: 6-17-19 Nic and the Captain discuss: Michael Francke Case and the arrest of the Coward of Broward. www.truecrimegarage.com #truecrime #crime #crimenews #truecrimepodcast

Brief Summary

Frank Gable's innocence is questioned while Scott Peterson faces charges for inaction during a school shooting.

Key points

Frank Gable's Innocence Questioned. Frank Gable, convicted of murder, is believed innocent by the victim's family. The case is being reexamined.
Cowardice in Law Enforcement. A sheriff's deputy faces felony charges for failing to act during a school shooting.
Facing 70 Years. A police officer faces up to 70 years in prison for his inaction during a shooting.
The Complexity of Accountability. The discussion revolves around the complexities of holding officers accountable for their actions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What convicted this guy does not exist anymore.

5:15WatchFeb 13, 2025

Tension

55/ 100Some tension

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