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The Pending Show Trial Of Michael Morrison Is There A Concerted Effort By Court Officials To Deny Him Due Process? |
January 22, 2016 |
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Justice Awaits The Circus' Departure From Town VolusiaExposed.Com has been covering the Morrison prosecution for several years. Morrison was arrested in October 2012 - under the charge of aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer. Police reports alleged that in the early morning hours of October 22, 2012 - while two police officers were allowing a female acquaintance of Morrison's to break in to his Holly Hill residence - that Morrison threatened both the police officers and the female acquaintance with a firearm. The police report goes on to state that in response to Morrison's alleged aggravated battery on the law enforcement officers - ONE of the TWO officers fired his weapon ONCE - striking Morrison in the back. (Yes - you read it correctly - shot in the back) |
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Interestingly enough the police never charged Morrison with the alleged aggravated battery on the female acquaintance.
(Police report alleges that Morrison threatened the acquaintance with the firearm as well as the officers) VolusiaExposed has in earlier articles - expressed the opinion that the police shooting of Morrison was an accidental discharge. Last spring (2015) - and after nearly three years of criminal prosecution - the State Attorney started to offer Morrison a series of eye opening plea bargains. In short - that the State was willing to reduce the criminal charge down from felony aggravated assault of two police officers (which carries a mandatory minimum of 3 years in prison) - to what eventually equates to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. The State was even willing to waive any fines, probation, jail time - AND offered the withholding of adjudication (guilt). Within at least one of our (VolusiaExposed.Com) earlier articles (videos) - Judge Frank Marriott can be seen encouraging Morrison to take the plea deal (April 15, 2015). Interestingly - the plea deal was later sweetened further from what was discussed in the April 15, 2015 court hearing - to what is now outlined in the above parargraph. From our (VolusiaExposed.Com) perspective - the State Attorney, Judge Marriott and Morrison's long series of different attorneys - used all of the 2015 court hearings in a failed attempt to presuade, and later coerce Morrison into accepting a plea bargain. There is only one problem - Morrison will NOT accept a plea deal - for you see - Morrison insists that he is an innocent man. With that thought in mind - Morrison has opted to exercise his constitutional right to a jury trial. In preparation for his jury trial - Morrison continues to demand - but to no apparent avail - that the State's forty-six (46) Class A witnesses be deposed by his attorney (Reference Below Scroll Box). |
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Defendants Into Accepting Plea Bargains? VolusiaExposed spends only a very limited amount of time within Volusia County courtrooms. But from our observations - Morrison is NOT the only criminal defendant that court officials have attempted to coerce into taking a plea bargain over the defendant's right to a jury trial (Our OPINION). In late November 2015 - VolusiaExposed.Com posted an article regarding the prosecution of Jeffrey Scott Smith Within the Smith article - we questioned whether their was a concerted effort (aka conspiracy) by the State Attorney, Court and Mr. Smith's attorney to coerce him into accepting a plea bargain - thereby denying him his right to a fair and impartial trial (Sixth Amendment - U.S. Constitution). |
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Criminal Defendant Represent Thyself VolusiaExposed again encourages you to review our earlier article, and the supportive video attached to Mr. Jeffery Smith's November 2015 court hearing. During his court hearing, Mr. Smith was voicing concerns that his attorney was not properly representing his interests - which included preparing him for trial. In our opinion - the State Attorney, the Court and Smith's attorney were focusing more on getting him to accept the offered plea bargain - then they were in Mr. Smith's apparent desire of preparing his case for trial. |
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During the hearing - Judge Marriott advised Smith to file his own motion regarding his concerns against his attorney (see video within earlier article).
Smith articulated his frustration regarding his inability to file such a motion, due to the fact that he was a carpenter - and not an attorney. Files His Own Motion Judge Marriott Back Pedals Smith complied - the best he could (see scroll box - right of page) - with Judge Marriott's instructions to file his own court motion. (see scroll box - right of page) However, almost immediately thereafter - Judge Marriott issued his court order - (see scroll box - right of page) - that Smith could NOT legally file his own court motions - due to the fact that Smith had assigned legal representation. |
SCROLL DOWN TO REVIEW Judge Marriott's November 19, 2015 Order      |
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WTF? Now - we (VolusiaExposed.Com) invite you to review the above attached video of Morrison's January 11, 2016 hearing (See top right of article) - in which Morrison also articulated concerns about his attorney not properly preparing his case for trial - with Judge Marriott instructing Morrison to file his own motion regarding his concerns. So given Judge Marriott's order in the Smith case - that Smith could not file his own motions - given that Smith was represented by counsel - the proper question here is - how can Morrison legally file his own motions? Hopefully there is some type of legal explanation here - because absent an explanation - VolusiaExposed.Com holds the opinion that Judge Marriott has been toying with both Smith and Morrison - in a scheme to get both defendants so frustrated, that they will submit to, and accept, the proposed plea bargains. Recently, Brevard County Court Judge John C. Murphy was removed from office, by the Florida Supreme Court, for his strong arm tactics of having criminal defendants waive their rights to legal representation and a speedy trial. VolusiaExposed.Com has formed the opinion that Judge Marriott has crossed similar ethical lines in the Morrison and Smith prosecutions. We (VolusiaExposed) shall provide a supportive thesis for this particular OPINION later within this article. |
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A Defendant And His Defense Fund Are Soon Parted In truth, it's our opinion that Morrison's prosecution has been a "dog and pony show" for sometime now. However, Morrison's latest court appearance has concreted our opinion that there IS A CONSPIRACY between the State Attorney, the Court and some of his attorneys - to deny Morrison his right to a fair and impartial trial (Due Process). And while Judge Marriott correctly pointed out during the January 11th hearing that Morrison has had several attorneys - Marriott failed to mention that it was he (Marriott) that allowed Attorney David Damore to abandon Morrison - while taking with him (Damore) - Morrison's criminal defense funds ($10,000 plus dollar according to Morrison). Damore's departure from the case sent Morrison's defense strategy into a unrecoverable tail spin (OPINION). We further hold the opinion that the given rationale (possible ineffective counsel complaint) for allowing Damore to exit as Morrison's defense attorney - has probably dampened and chilled any prospects of Morrison securing another qualified attorney within the local judicial circuit, that would be willing to present the evidence and a proper defense. (See our April 2015 article for further clarification - Click here) |
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This Is Way Beyond Mere Ineffective Counsel It Has Become A System Wide Denial Of Constitutional Due Process! It is fairly clear within our April 2015 article that Morrison's attorney (Damore), and the Court were concerned that Morrison had a viable "ineffective counsel" complaint - thus the rationale for allowing Attorney David Damore's withdrawal as Morrison's attorney. (Watch the videos attached within the April 2015 article - particular attention given to the April 20, 2015 video) We (VolusiaExposed.Com) agree that Morrison probably does have a viable "ineffective counsel" complaint against Damore. |
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HOWEVER there seems to be more to this case than merely "ineffective counsel".
VolusiaExposed.Com submits the following observations for your review. On August 28, 2015 - Attorney Steve Robinson files a "Notice of Appearance" with the Clerk of Court - declaring that he now represents Mr. Morrison (See Clerk Of Court docket - right of page - Click to enlarge --->). According to the Clerk's docket - Attorney Robinson also filed several motions with the Court on August 28, 2015. These motions included - but were not limited to - a Motion To Dismiss & a Motion To Suppress (Evidence) (See above right scroll box for copies of motions). In our OPINION - the significance is not that these motions were filed by Attorney Robinson - but rather that the motions have not been addressed by either the State Attorney's Office (SAO), or scheduled for a hearing by the Court, or revisited by Robinson at any of Morrison's subsequent court hearings ! |
Clerk Of The Court's Docket - Click To Enlarge 
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Volusia County's Own Special Breed Of Justice During the January 11, 2016 hearing - the Court was advised by Morrison's legal counsel that Attorney Robinson was ready for trial. Mr. Morrison articulated the position that his case was NOT ready for trial - due to the fact that his attorney has not conducted the depositions of the State's witnesses. Judge Marriott made it abundently clear to Morrison that he will be going to trial in February - regardless if he (Morrison) was ready or not. (see video - top of page) While VolusiaExposed shares Morrison's opinion that his case is not ready for trial, due to the lack of taking depositions of the State's witnesses. VolusiaExposed also wonders how Attorney Robinson can be prepared for trial since neither the State nor the Court have addressed his August 2015 motions to the Court. In our opinion - Morrison is not ready for trial - and that none of the fault can be assigned to Morrison - that is unless, Morrison is to be faulted for wanting his criminal case to be processed within the confines of the U.S. Constitution. For us - we support his right to constitutional due process. How about you? In truth - Mr. Morrison has the right to depose the State's witnesses and to have his court motions addressed. However, Morrison does NOT have the ability to make any of this happen. All of this is under the authority of his attorney, the Court and to some degree the State Attorney's office. So why has Morrison been denied his due process? Well in our opinion - the answer is simple, and can easily be seen within the court videos attached to our other articles on this debacle. The Court, the SAO, and his own attorney are placing him into a position to either accept a trial in which he is woefully unprepared, OR take the offered plea bargain. VolusiaExposed.Com attempted to contact Morrison's attorney (Robinson) and both public information officers for the Court and the State Attorney's Office for comment on this article (Emails). They were provided with a copy of this complete article. As of the posting of this article - VolusiaExposed.Com has not received any responses. |
Some Things Just Never Change !
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According to a local Volusia County heritage website - Volusia County in the 1920's and 1930's was the second most corrupt area in the nation. Interestingly - Cook County, IL. (Chicago) came in as the most corrupt area in the nation.
Well, given the Laquan McDonald shooting scandal - not much has changed in Chicago over the last 100 years. What's your opinion about Volusia County - would it still qualify as one of the most corrupt areas in the nation? If your answer is yes - Volusia County would still qualify as one of the most corrupt areas in the nation - then how much trust should you be assigning to your local government officials? 
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