Defendant’s Father Seized in Scuffle Near Courtroom

The father of the defendant in a freeway shooting case was arrested outside a courtroom in Santa Ana on Monday after he reportedly took a swing at a television cameraman. But he was soon released after the cameraman told police he did not want to press charges.

Fines Morgan of Santa Ana, whose son Albert Carroll Morgan is on trial in Superior Court this week for attempted murder in a shooting near the Orange County Fairgrounds, sat outside the courtroom, denying he had done anything wrong.

“I walked down the hall holding my sweater in front of my face; no way I could have hit him,” Fines Morgan said.

But several witnesses claim that he took a swing at cameraman David Bush when he filmed father and son as they walked out of the courtroom.

Monday was the first day of testimony at Albert Morgan’s trial. Prosecutors say Morgan shot Paul Gary Nussbaum of Rolling Hills Estates near the end of the Costa Mesa Freeway on July 18, 1987. Nussbaum, who is still hospitalized, was left paralyzed from the neck down.

Albert Morgan, 33, who is free on $100,000 bail, does not dispute the shooting. But he claims that he was only trying to scare Nussbaum, who was passing Morgan’s vehicle on the right shoulder.

Albert Morgan left the courtroom with a magazine in front of his face trying to shield himself from a KCBS, Channel 2, television camera. According to Channel 2 reporter Dave Lopez, Fines Morgan first tried to push the camera away, then took a swing at Bush, missing him. Bush, who had a camera on his shoulder, grabbed Fines Morgan with his free hand and threw him to the ground. Two Costa Mesa officers who were there to testify at the Morgan trial broke up the scuffle.

One bystander said later, “The camera was right in their faces; it was television at its worst.”

But Lopez defended his camera crew. “We were just doing our job,” he said.

Fines Morgan later said, “I was just an innocent bystander; I didn’t do anything.”

He was detained in a courtroom and told he was under arrest. But he was released a few minutes later at Bush’s request.

Fines Morgan said he was shielding himself from the camera because thought the television people had no right to put his picture on the news.

“This has been very hard on us,” Fines Morgan said. “We just want to be left alone.”

Nussbaum is scheduled to testify for the first time against Morgan on Wednesday. He was too ill from the shooting to testify at the preliminary hearing.