Ferguson protester, former rapper and former Missouri state Rep. Bruce Franks, right, listens to a speaker on Aug. 9, 2023, at a gathering on Canfield Drive recognizing the ninth anniversary of Michael Brown’s death.

The charges finally hit the fan for Bruce Franks, a former St. Louis activist and state legislator who has been the subject of an Arizona criminal probe since early 2023. The Pinal County Attorney’s Office last week charged Franks with 10 felonies: nine counts of forgery and one count of theft.

According to Axios Phoenix , which has been following the story since it first surfaced last year, Franks is slated to appear in court on Oct. 21. Each charge is punishable by one year to 45 months in prison.

The case that has Franks under scrutiny, first reported by this bureau in August, also led to the resignations of two high-ranking officials from the Maricopa County Democratic Party. One of those officials was party executive director Ne’Lexia Galloway, who was Franks’ fiancée at the time. (Axios reports that Franks and Galloway are now married.

) Last year, Arizona media reported that the Maricopa County Democratic Party spent about $24,500 to have nearly 120,000 flyers printed and mailed out to area residents. In apparent violation of the party’s conflict of interest policy, Galloway instructed a consulting company to subcontract the work to a business Franks started in 2021 — and also told consultants not to mention that the work was assigned to Frank.