The decide blinked exhausting, forehead furrowed, for what appeared like a really very long time. He rubbed his chin, seemed on the prosecutor, and mentioned she had dropped a “little hydrogen bomb.”
The prosecutor shocked the Riverside County courtroom on Friday, Sept. 1 by asking the decide to dismiss involuntary manslaughter and little one cruelty fees towards Michelle Morris-Kerin, the previous foster mom to the severely disabled.
Morris-Kerin faces practically a dozen felonies, together with “willfully, unlawfully, and lewdly” committing lascivious acts upon grownup dependents “with the intent of arousing, interesting to, and gratifying … lust, passions, and sexual wishes,” in accordance with the indictment.
Deputy District Legal professional Maureen DuMouchel requested the dismissal of two counts as a result of prosecutors are gathering extra proof towards Morris-Kerin and anticipate to refile fees. The decide requested in the event that they meant to refile fees that beforehand had been dismissed, and DuMouchel mentioned sure.
Morris-Kerin initially confronted second-degree homicide for the dying of foster little one Diane Princess Ramirez, who spent an agonizing evening in Morris-Kerin’s residence, moaning and vomiting blood. Regardless of particular directions to get the lady to the emergency room if that occurred, Morris-Kerin refused to name 911 for some seven hours whereas Ramirez’s important indicators fluctuated and her pores and skin grew chilly to the contact. Morris-Kerin insisted the lady could be superb, in accordance with a state report.
Ramirez had cerebral palsy, seizure dysfunction and different challenges, in addition to an indomitable spirit and mischievous humorousness. She’d place pretend spiders in her locker to scare the lecturers who helped her open it, was a junior assessed at grade degree at Murrieta Mesa Excessive Faculty, noticed her “prom-posal” to quarterback Jeff Miller make the TV information. She was 17 when she died on April 6, 2019, of “volvulus,” a twisted gut that reduce off blood provide to her bowels.
Riverside Superior Court docket Decide Timothy F. Freer threw out the homicide cost in April 2022, saying the District Legal professional’s workplace did not current convincing proof that Morris-Kerin’s inaction considerably contributed to Ramirez’s dying.
“The proof established by specialists was, on the whole, volvulus may be handled by surgical procedure, and the earlier the higher,” the decide mentioned then. “There was no proof that the volvulus that troubled Diane was one which might be handled, or one that might have been deadly it doesn’t matter what.”
That lacking piece is outwardly what the D.A. is pursuing.
‘Case of such magnitude’
Morris-Kerin and her husband Larry Kerin had been within the courtroom Friday when Freer dismissed the 2 fees and so they all discovered extra could also be coming. Each listened attentively, whereas Brian Cosgrove, the general public defender representing Morris-Kerin, appeared to deflate a bit on the D.A.’s information.
Kerin was by no means charged with homicide or manslaughter — these had been for Morris-Kerin alone — however Kerin is charged with little one neglect associated to Ramirez’s dying in addition to lewd and lascivious conduct.
Prosecutors anticipate to have their investigation full in January, DuMouchel mentioned. Decide Freer requested everybody to return to court docket on Jan. 26 for extra hearings, with trial tentatively set for late February. It might final six weeks, Freer mentioned.
“This can be a case of such magnitude we wish to ensure that, legally, we get it proper,” he mentioned.
Controversy has dogged Morris-Kerin throughout two counties for many years.
She started her foster profession in Orange County within the mid-Nineties, caring for profoundly disabled youngsters. Every got here with about $5,000 a month in state help. She adopted many of those youngsters — nonetheless receiving the $5,000 a month per adopted little one — which allowed her to absorb extra foster youngsters (one’s personal youngsters don’t rely towards the foster census). She cared for as much as a dozen medically fragile individuals at a time at her top, producing some $800,000 a 12 months.
Morris-Kerin quickly clashed with Orange County officers, who asserted that she suffered from Munchausen by proxy, a habits dysfunction through which caretakers exaggerate youngsters’s well being issues and topic them to pointless or inappropriate medical therapy, in accordance with data. She sued, gained a settlement, then moved her enterprise to Riverside County to flee what she known as “persecution” in O.C.
Complaints continued there as effectively. Morris-Kerin “doesn’t take excellent care of Diane or the kids she takes and ‘is simply doing it for the cash,’” one among Ramirez’s lecturers advised county employees, in accordance with social employees’ inner logs. Her adopted son Ryan Morris — who was enticed to marry a person of normal intelligence practically twice his age with the promise of a cellphone — is without doubt one of the dependent individuals who allegedly was sexually abused in Morris-Kerin’s care. Ryan Morris’ bio household at all times maintained that Morris-Kerin took within the youngsters for the cash, a cost she at all times denied.
“(T)he Felony Grand Jury of the County of Riverside by this Indictment hereby accuses MICHELLE LOUISE MORRIS of a violation of Penal Code part 288, subdivision( c)( 2), a felony, in that on or about 1/ 10/ 2012 by way of and together with 9/ 30/ 14, within the County of Riverside, State of California, the defendant, being a caretaker, did willfully, unlawfully, and lewdly commit a lewd and lascivious act upon and with the physique and sure components and members thereof of JOHN DOE ( R.M.), a dependent particular person, with the intent of arousing, interesting to, and gratifying the lust, passions, and sexual wishes of the mentioned defendant and the mentioned dependent particular person,” the indictment says, referencing Ryan Morris.
After 29 years, Ryan Morris is within the care of his organic household, which by no means needed to lose him to start with. Ramirez’s mother and father are suing the county, with a watch to making sure nothing like this occurs once more.
