Indictment details disturbing abuse allegations at controversial California foster home

[ad_1]

Their foster homes in Orange and Riverside counties have been hailed as a godsend by some and denounced as a nightmare by others. Today, a foster parent is charged with murder, and she and her husband are both accused of sexually abusing people with disabilities who depended on them for their care and protection.

Jeff Miller kisses Diane Ramirez at the 2018 Spectacular Prom. Courtesy of Jeff Miller.

Michelle Morris-Kerin, 80, was scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, August 12, but her indictment continued until August 30 to give lawyers time to review sealed documents from the grand jury proceedings Riverside County criminal that resulted in a 14-count indictment.

While Morris, as she is called, is charged with second degree murder for failing to secure help for desperately ill foster child Princess Diane Ramirez and is named in all 14 counts , her husband, Edward Lawrence Larry Kerin, 79, is charged only with negligence in relation to the child’s death, and is named on five counts.

Brian Cosgrove, responsible for complex litigation with the Riverside County Office of Public Defenders, expects not guilty pleas to be entered on August 30.

Both are accused of deliberately, illegally and obscurely committing lascivious acts on adult dependents with the intention of arousing, appealing and satisfying the sexual lusts, passions and desires of said accused and said dependent person, according to the indictment.

The charges appear to refer to the marriage of an foster sibling in the couple’s custody at the now closed Michelle Morris family home for disabled children in Murrieta. The suitability of this marriage has been an issue as Morris struggled to retain guardianship of dependent adult children after relinquishing his foster care license following Ramirez’s death.

In a petition to estates court last August, Morris denies any unlawful, inappropriate or wrongful treatment of the married sibling. She also denied that these clients had profound developmental delay.

Their classroom performance, aided by assistive technology devices, made it clear that neither was cognitively retarded. Morris-Kerin admits they were married. Four days before their wedding, APS (Adult Protective Services) interviewed them and reported that, through their communication devices, they had convinced APS that the marriage was appropriate, the petition says.

A third obscene and lascivious accusation names Morris alone and involves her adopted son, Ryan Morris, who has been at the center of controversy for nearly two decades.

The indictment states that Morris, as a caretaker, willfully, illegally and obscenely committed an obscene and lascivious act against Ryan Morris with the intention of arousing, appealing and satisfying lust, passions and the sexual desires of said accused and said dependent person.

Ryan Morris and his identical twin brother were taken into state custody shortly after their birth. The healthy twin returned to his biological family, but Ryan Morris had a long list of illnesses and Morris, the adoptive mother, told the court that his biological family could not properly care for him. She was allowed to adopt him despite vehement objections from the biological family.

Morris was one of Ryan Morris’s guardians when, at the age of 20 and despite the intelligence of a kindergarten child, he married a man nearly twice his age in a formal ceremony in Morris’s backyard. Ryan Morris mistook the ceremony for a baptism. A court-ordered review said he lacked the capacity to consent to marriage and an intimate relationship, and he told a psychologist Morris had promised him a cell phone if he got married.

Michelle Morriss $ 1.6 million, 7,000 square foot home in Murrieta, where she ran a state licensed facility for disabled foster children. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register / SCNG)

Ryan Morris’s biological family have fought for years for his legal guardianship, claiming he was sexually assaulted while Morris was watching. The judge ordered Morris not to contact his son.

While the biological family of Ryan Morris view the indictment as validation of complaints they have filed for years without much success, some were not happy that the deadline for the alleged abuse was so short.

Ryan Morris has suffered his entire life at the hands of Morris, they claim, while the indictment covers only 2.5 years from January 10, 2012, after he turned 18, until September 30, 2014, a few days before her wedding to Sean Spicer.

Morris remains in jail, on bail set at $ 1 million; Kerin was released on bail. Because Morris is represented by the Public Defenders Office, the judge appointed an outside lawyer to represent Kerin. The public defender cannot represent two defendants in the same case, county spokesman John Hall said.

It is quite unusual for the district attorney to summon a grand jury to hand down a criminal indictment, and this is often the route taken by high-profile cases, such as the shooting of a disabled man by a police officer in leave in a Corona Costco in 2019, Cosgrove said. The Office of Public Defenders conducts a full conflict check and reviews police and other reports that have just been transmitted by the District Prosecutor’s Office. The transcript of the grand jury proceedings is expected to be completed on August 23, and both sides will look into those before the August 30 arraignment.

The public defender typically represents indigent or low-income clients who cannot afford a private lawyer. Morris and Kerin own a house on Calle Bandido worth around $ 1.6 million, and the means problem may arise as the case progresses, Cosgrove said.

[ad_2]