Judge Revokes Bail for Teen-Ager Accused of Credit-Card Fraud

Calling him “a danger to the community,” a Superior Court judge revoked bail Monday for a teen-ager accused of credit-card fraud last week while he was free on bail.

Michael Scott Morrison, 19, was returned to County Jail at least until Dec. 29, when Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Alan B. Haber has scheduled a bail hearing. Morrison had pleaded guilty earlier this year to bank robbery but was released on bail pending an appeal.

Morrison was arrested Thursday after prosecutors said he attempted to buy $550 worth of leather goods on a MasterCard belonging to Catherine Tiffany.

Tiffany, the wife of a police officer, had used the card the previous night at Bullock’s in Sherman Oaks’ Fashion Square and had inadvertently left it on the counter, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert P. Imerman said.

The prosecutor said Morrison, who works at Bullock’s, tried to use the card the next day at Leather Bound in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. When the clerk at Leather Bound asked Morrison for identification, Imerman said he showed a driver’s license with his photograph and Tarzana address, but someone else’s name.

When the clerk asked why the credit card and license had different names, Morrison told her the card belonged to his sister, Imerman said. The clerk called police.

Morrison pleaded guilty in June to robbing the Barclay’s Bank branch in Tarzana in January, 1985, and to stealing a car in May, 1985, from the parking lot of a Woodland Hills restaurant. He was 16 at the time.

Morrison was sentenced in July to five years in a California Youth Authority facility, but was free on $50,000 bail pending his appeal of court rulings that forced him to be prosecuted as an adult and permitted prosecutors to use evidence that his attorney claimed was seized illegally.

If the appellate court rules in Morrison’s favor, his guilty plea would be set aside, and he could seek a court trial.

Monday marked the second time that prosecutors tried to revoke Morrison’s bail. The first stemmed from a misdemeanor battery charge filed in October, when Morrison pleaded not guilty to the Sept. 15 beating of Jason Gilbert, 18, a fellow student at Pierce College.

The battery charge and the motion to revoke bail were subsequently dropped after a spokesman in the city attorney’s office said there was evidence of mutual combat.

Morrison’s attorney, Roger J. Diamond, could not be reached for comment Monday.