10 things you may not have read about Francke case

Boxes of files, doubts of investigators could blow apart shut case

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, May 24, 2005, Updated Oct 30, 2009

The Sunday Oregonian published a story that claimed that no evidence exists to support long-standing allegations that Oregon Corrections Director Michael Francke may have been murdered because he was fighting corruption within his department.

But it left out facts that reveal that the full story of the slaying has yet to be told.

Francke was stabbed to death outside his Salem office Jan. 17, 1989. A small-time Salem drug dealer named Frank Gable was convicted of the murder more than two years later. Marion County prosecutors argued that Gable had stabbed Francke in the heart after being caught burglarizing his car.

Gable is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Florida prison for the killing Ñ far longer than typical sentences for unplanned slayings. Under Measure 11 sentencing guidelines, the maximum sentence for nonaggravated murder is 25 years.

Here are 10 facts not included in The Oregonian’s story:

1. Thousands of documents about the investigation into the murder and allegations of corruption in the Corrections Department have never been released to the public. They include reports written by the Oregon State Police and a commission appointed by former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt to investigate the allegations. Many of the reports were transferred to the office of the Corrections ombudsman, where they are exempt from public disclosure.

The documents include most of the investigative reports produced by the Goldschmidt-appointed commission, which was chaired by retired Oregon Appeals Judge John Warden. According to an inventory of the ombudsman records obtained by the Portland Tribune, they include investigative reports, investigative notes, audiotapes and two files labeled “Francke investigation.”

2. The Warden Commission found that some Corrections employees were engaged in criminal activities at the time of Francke’s death, according to the final report that was released to the public. Without naming names, it said, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that some officials of the Department of Corrections are involved in significant illegal activities or other wrongdoing.” The report also said that a number of identified department employees who had admitted to committing crimes during an early corruptions investigation still were working there in 1989.

Although the report concluded there was no “organized, sinister conspiracy” among the staff to commit illegal acts, “what does appear to exist is an atmosphere, wherein those who seek personal gain of property, power, or authority, can pursue those ends with little difficulty.”

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