Judge Orders Youth Charged in Bank Holdups Tried as Adult

A Tarzana youth accused of robbing two San Fernando Valley banks at gunpoint must face trial as an adult, a Sylmar Juvenile Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge Burton S. Katz said the crimes of which Michael Morrison, 17, are accused “demonstrated a high degree of criminal sophistication.” The crimes were the robbery of Barclays Bank of California on Jan. 3 and the robbery of Encino Savings & Loan on May 23, which included the theft of two cars at gunpoint. Morrison’s Taft High School classmate Mark Berman had also been charged in the second robbery. Police said the teen-agers wore police uniforms and Halloween masks at the second robbery.

Katz made his ruling after a two-day hearing on whether Morrison should be tried as a juvenile or adult, and after a 90-minute heated discussion with Morrison’s attorney, Roger Diamond. Diamond argued that Katz should give “equal treatment” to the two youths by declaring Morrison fit for Juvenile Court, as Katz had done earlier with Berman.

Berman, 17, pleaded guilty to the bank robbery and car-theft charges against him. Katz sentenced him last month to the California Youth Authority.

‘Flat Arrogance’

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Jerry Bowes argued that Morrison “is a rational individual who thought about what he was doing and he got caught. . . . This is a matter of flat arrogance.”

Referring to testimony that the youths planned to use the stolen money to start an ice cream truck business, Katz said that “the purpose expressed by the minor is an adult purpose. It’s logical. It’s rational. . . . I believe he is unfit for the juvenile system.”

If convicted in adult court, Morrison could be sentenced to as much as 12 years in state prison, Diamond said. If Morrison had been found guilty in Juvenile Court, no felony conviction would have appeared on his record and the maximum sentence would have been a term in the California Youth Authority, which is required to release inmates by the time they turn 25.

An adult-court judge may still sentence Morrison to the California Youth Authority or to a combined state-prison and Youth Authority term.

Bowes said the charges against Morrison will be transferred to Van Nuys Municipal Court.

Morrison sat with his eyes down through most of the hearing, occasionally dabbing away tears with a tissue clutched tightly in his hand. His parents sat behind him.

Psychiatric Testimony

On Monday, Diamond called as witnesses a psychologist and two psychiatrists who treated Morrison before and after the crimes to testify that the youth would receive more suitable counseling if he remained in the juvenile system.

“The evidence is overwhelming that it would be in the best interests of Michael and society” to try him as a juvenile, Diamond argued. “The similarities between Mark Berman and Michael Morrison far outweigh any dissimilarities.”

But Katz, noting that Morrison first saw a psychiatrist when he was 13, said the boy’s behavioral problems only worsened while he was in therapy. In contrast, Katz said, Berman had never been under psychiatric care.

“I finally believed that young Berman was amenable to the methods and the processes of the juvenile system. I don’t feel that in this case,” Katz said.

Morrison was evaluated by psychiatrist Noel Lustig “on the day he had committed the armed robbery of a car to be used the next day in a bank robbery and that just makes me wonder: Can he be rehabilitated? Is he amenable?” Katz said. “With that kind of track record of behavior problems, I don’t believe he is amenable” to Juvenile Court, Katz said.