Judge Dismisses Fraud Charges Against Former TV News Anchor

A San Bernardino County judge dismissed fraud charges Tuesday against former KCBS news anchor Larry Carroll at the end of a 10-week trial, declaring that “in the interest of justice” the evidence of the former newsman’s innocence far outweighed his guilt.

Superior Court Judge J. Michael Welch also declared a mistrial in the case of Carroll’s co-defendant, Ronald Long.

“I’ve been anticipating this moment since Feb. 8,” said Carroll, referring to the day of his indictment this year. “I am absolutely thrilled.”

Carroll, who turned 49 on Dec. 11, hugged his wife, Roman, and their two children, Yenea and Lawrence Carroll IV, who were in court Tuesday.

“I am absolutely not surprised,” he said. “I knew we would walk out of this. I am grateful to this judge. I am grateful to God.”

The former newsman and Long had been charged with trying to defraud Newberry Springs water park owner Terry Christensen by persuading him to put $2 million in a scam investment that would allegedly earn him $18 million. Skeptical of the deal, Christensen told the authorities, who orchestrated a sting operation against Carroll and Long. Christensen never paid any money to Carroll or Long.

Carroll insisted he was duped into believing the investments were legitimate. After his indictment, he said, he realized he had lost $30,000 paid to the same con men who were trying to cheat Christensen. The newsman had maintained he was innocent of the five felony charges. Four were related to securities fraud and one was a charge of conspiracy to commit grand theft.

“I am overjoyed that Larry Carroll will have Christmas dinner a man no longer under the shadow of a vicious and wrong indictment,” said Rex Beaber, one of Carroll’s two defense attorneys.

Deputy Dist. Atty. L. Gordon Isen had no comment on the dismissal of charges against Carroll, since he still intends to try Long and another defendant, charged earlier in the fall. “The prosecution is ongoing against the two remaining defendants,” he said.

Carroll’s defense attorneys had asked for a dismissal Monday afternoon after the judge ruled that Isen had improperly questioned Carroll under cross-examination. The prosecutor asked Carroll if he ever testified in a previous criminal trial. When the newsman said he had not, Isen laid out for Carroll--and the jury--the details of a 1990 embezzlement trial in which Carroll had testified.

The judge said Tuesday in his ruling that it would be difficult to get a jury to disregard that exchange no matter how he admonished them.

Judge Welch had offered Monday to grant a mistrial to the former newsman, but Carroll’s attorneys declined and asked for a dismissal.

Welch decided that he could grant a dismissal based upon an evaluation of the evidence.

“Quite possibly, Mr. Carroll did not even know of the nature of the crime as such,” the judge said in court. “There was no money lost. Mr. Carroll lost money. Mr. Christensen didn’t. In fact, Mr. Christensen became in effect only a name. It was an entire sting operation designed to elicit . . . whether or not there was a conspiracy.”

The judge decided there was little evidence of Carroll being involved in a conspiracy to steal Christensen’s money. The judge also said there was little evidence the transaction involved a securities trade.

As soon as he was indicted in February, Carroll took a leave of absence from his afternoon anchoring duties at KCBS. In May, when his contract expired, the station chose not to rehire him, and he lost his $330,000 a year job.

“There won’t be much under the tree, but that won’t matter,” said Carroll, who was already suffering severe financial problems when he lost his anchor job. The only job he has done since the trial is a day’s work, playing an anchorman in a Dolph Lungren movie earlier this month. “Now I can devote my intellectual energy to rebuilding my life,” Carroll said.

Carroll has worked almost without interruption for nearly 30 years in the Los Angeles television news market--and figures he may try to stay in that line of work.

“You know what? I think I’m as good as anyone at that and I enjoy it and I would love to go back to that,” he said. “We’ll see what the Lord has in store for me.”