GROUP SUES FORMER JUDGE FLENNIKEN
Former 21st District Court Judge Terry Flenniken is being sued by a Texas anti-abortion group over a child welfare case.
The Texas Center for Defense of Life is suing Flenniken after it says he ordered a 15-year-old Burleson County girl to be returned to a home with her legal guardian, even though she claimed the guardian's convicted sex-offender boyfriend had made aggressive advances.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit charges Flenniken with knowingly placing a minor with her former step grandmother, despite her living with a registered sex offender in Caldwell.
Months after Flenniken's decision, the sex offender, Edward Clinton Lee, shot and killed the guardian and sexually assaulted the teen. Lee, plead guilty to capital murder and is now serving a life sentence.
Lee had been arrested in 1993 for indecency with a child. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for that crime and was ordered to register as a sex offender.
The Center for Defense of Life also says the teen claims her guardian and Lee forced her to have an abortion. They are asking the state attorney general to investigate possible criminal charges against Flenniken.
Flenniken, who retired from the bench in 2012, has not commented on the suit