Michael Morris - In Focus

What exactly is it I do that seems to boil the blood of so many politicians? You would think these dedicated public servants would merely dismiss me as some sort of wingnut, right? Seriously folks, if I am, in fact, the unknown crackpot some politicians so often claim, then why on earth am I a topic of conversation at all in their important lives? Frankly I am always flattered when I hear one politico or another is uneasy - helps keep 'em honest. With the political season really getting into gear I suppose it is time for me to get with it and start reviewing the lineup IMHO.

Obviously there is no other position in need of change more than that of District Attorney. The occupant of that office, Scot Key, is lacking the moral and professional standards required to be an effective prosecutor. Surrounded by a cast of characters resembling the clients of an opium den Key disgraces justice nearly every day he awakens. Unfortunately this is the kind of DA you get when the election is uncontested. Frankly each of the attorneys in this entire District should be hanging his/her head in shame for allowing this rein of incompetence to continue unchallenged. It is not like the attorneys are unaware of the unparalleled level of sheer incompetence, petty vengeance, laziness and the cornucopia of other slovenliness that is the rule in this Borat parody of a prosecutor's office. Instead we end up with the DA's office being occupied by the one lawyer in the District getting a raise by taking the job. Go figure.

Key's office is so poorly run if it were not for confessions it is possible the 12th Judicial District could become a conviction free zone. Leading the legion of the lost has to be ADA Janice Schryer. Janice is best known as the best ally a nominally competent defense attorney could hope for. Schryer, for quite some time, was in charge of prosecuting sex crimes in Lincoln County. That itself should have been a crime as Lincoln County became Chester's Playground. At the root of Janice's inability to prosecute seems to be laziness complimented by a generous dose of confusion. It is hard to imagine that one could graduate from law school without understanding the importance of establishing the elements of the crime, so there has to be some other reason, right? Ignoring for the moment Ms. Schryer's pitiful appearance and performance in the Cody Posey trial the defining moment for Janice came at the verdict in the trial of Kathryn Griffin recently. Griffin was indicted on 28 counts of embezzlement from the Village of Capitan when she was Village Clerk. Though the evidence was a series of simple documents clearly showing the thefts the office bungler managed to pull acquittals on all counts. Only 2 possibilities exist to explain this. Janice is incompetent or threw the case. Which of those would prompt you to vote for her boss?

Janice Schryer is not alone in the quest to fully erode justice. Another of Key's clowns stands a close second behind her. Dave Ceballes embodies all of the qualities of a guy who would be flipping burgers if it were not for his government job. Showing up for court unprepared with even a decent excuse for his lack of readiness Dave is a living lesson on the right to a speedy trial and the effect of that not being provided. Dave's defining moment came in the matter of Robert Jessie (STORY). Dave's failure to get that matter to trial on time resulted in the accused rapist being freed. In the wake of this Ceballes simply lost his mind threatening the warden of the LCDC with jail time for testifying honestly and actually asked Judge Parsons for permission to cut a defense attorney with a razor blade. Yeah! Vote Key.

In addition to the embarrassing performances that have become the SOP at the DA's Office you have management problems as well. Anyone remember Frank Cavazos? Cavazos and his squeeze/accomplice Pam Clark pulled 25+ count indictments for robbing the office treasury when Cavazos was Key's Chief Financial Officer later resulting in convictions and a few days in jail (INITIAL STORY '05) (NDICTMENT STORY '06) (CLARK CONVICTED) (CAVAZOS CONVICTED) (CAVAZOS SENTENCED). While we are here let's not forget Key's investigator Jack Henderson. Henderson, who likely has no clue what an MBR or a disk sector is is nonetheless the office's computer expert. He was asked to look at the accounting computer to find some evidence on Cavasos - yeah right. This is not at all surprising in light of his performance in the Posey trial (STORY) (STORY 2) (STORY 3). I was almost embarrassed for him after he testified he could find no evidence of incest porn on Delbert Posey's computer when the defense expert rolled in with a 3 inch binder full of screenshots of the foulness. No, it got better. Sandra Grisham put Henderson back on the stand to testify that Deputy Sheppard had tampered with the computer then, stunningly enough, that Henderson may have provided the defense with a bogus copy of the disk. It was a riot. Vote Key!

All of this should be enough to give you an idea that there is a problem in that office. If it is not, consider the man himself. In 1994 Key and his wife were convicted of the savage tandem beating of Key's 12 year old learning disabled stepdaughter (STORY). Fortunately for Key he was Chief Deputy DA at the time so the child abuse was dealt down to battery. When you consider why the office of the DA has lost the confidence of just about every cop in the district you may remember the Capitan incident where Capitan police arrested the wrong meth dealers. Not only did Key rush in to get these dealers released he tried to indict the Capitan cops for making the arrest (STORY). Is that the kind of unbalanced corrupt prosecutor you want? Rapists and drug dealers will be supporting Scot Key for DA. Do you want to be known by the company you keep?

Probably the most enabling factor in Key's success is the local press. Last go round Key was fortunate to have the bootlicking Michael Shinabery keeping the facts from the voters. This time that job will probably fall on the ADN's ace reporter Lord Karl Anderson. The only problem here is that Anderson is, well, a nut. It is now Lord Karl Anderson because Anderson actually went to court with a scam noble title he bought off the internet claiming he had a noble title. Thanks to Judge Wilson on that. Now the guy is telling co-workers this $197 title is the real thing. What chance do you think we have of getting cogent reporting there? Couple that with his editor Michael Becker who threatened to make up a story about some supposed involvement between me and OCEDC to discredit my reports on Sunbaked Biscuits and you have National Lampoon's Newspaper trying to report on subjects even the definition of which escapes them. Good luck.

Help me out folks. What is it I write that makes these guys so upset? After all I am just some delusional crackpot, right?