Magistrate Calls Her ‘Loose Cannon’ : Prosecutor Suspended Over Trial Tactic

A veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor, branded a “loose cannon” by a federal magistrate, has been suspended amid charges of deliberate misconduct in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage in a 1988 robbery trial.

Rosalie L. Morton, a deputy district attorney in the San Fernando Courthouse, last week was suspended with pay based on a preliminary review of the case by U.S. Magistrate Volney V. Brown, said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Thompson.

“Morton is a loose cannon who the district attorney cannot or will not control,” Brown wrote in his review. “Her misconduct has made her a local legend in her own time.”

The allegations stem from a robbery trial in which Morton, 66, introduced evidence in her opening statement to the jury that the judge had ruled inadmissible.

A mistrial was subsequently declared. Immediately after the proceeding, Morton filed a motion to disqualify the trial judge, Judge Dana Senit Henry. The motion was denied.

Defense attorneys then filed a plea with Henry to have the case dismissed altogether. They charged that Morton forced a mistrial in an attempt to have the case retried before a new judge who would admit the suppressed evidence.

Refused Request

Henry ultimately rejected the request, saying that she “believed that Morton’s actions were based on a misconception of the court’s ruling,” according to court documents.

After a similar plea was rejected by the California Court of Appeal, the defense refiled the motion in U.S. District Court, where it is now pending.

In his review of the motion, Brown noted that Morton has been cited on several different occasions for misconduct by the state Court of Appeal. He quoted one instance in which Morton allegedly told the state court that she “takes pride” in her admonitions by the court.

Morton “does dishonor not only to herself,” Brown wrote, “but to her profession . . . the State Bar should now consider whether she should be disbarred.”

Deputy Public Defender Henry J. Hall, one of three defense attorneys who filed the plea, said the state attorney general had until this weekend to file a response. If no response is filed, Hall said, the robbery case will automatically be dismissed.

However, he said, the attorney general could appeal the case.

Thompson said that if the allegations against Morton, a 19-year veteran of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, are found to be true, she would be subject to disciplinary action, ranging from a letter of reprimand to possible termination.

Last month, a Los Angeles County prosecutor was suspended for 30 days without pay for misrepresenting evidence to obtain a first-degree murder conviction. The judge in that case later reduced the jury’s guilty verdict to second-degree murder and referred the matter to the State Bar.