JUDGE FLENNIKEN FILES MOTION TO DISMISS LAWSUIT
A hearing is set for next week to dismiss a lawsuit filed against retired 21st District Court Judge Terry Flenniken. Mike McKetta, an attorney for District Court Judge Terry Flenniken, filed the motion for dismissal in Burleson County this week.
Flenniken is being sued by the Texas Center for Defense of Life. The lawsuit alleges Flenniken ordered a 15-year old girl to continue living with her grandmother even though the girl claimed her grandmother’s convicted sex offender boyfriend was making ‘aggressive advances’ and that the couple was trying to force her to terminate a pregnancy.
Six months after the ruling, the sex offender, Edward Clinton Lee, shot and killed the grandmother and sexually assaulted the teen.
The slain woman was not the teen’s biological grandmother, but after she and the paternal grandfather separated, the grandmother was granted custody. The girl lived with the grandmother.
McKetta’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit said Judge Flenniken was never presented with any evidence that would have led him to believe the girl was in danger.
McKetta’s motion states, the girl ‘stated that she never felt unsafe in her home and that she had never been coerced to do anything or make any decision that she did not want to do or make.’ The statement further says the girl wanted to continue to live with her step-grandmother and Lee, whom she knew was a convicted sex offender.