ณาฐฟฑทดดกณขทกณงฬโ Prosecutors in Ascension Parish agreed Tuesday to drop a bid to revoke $635,000 bail for jailed Baton Rouge contractor Matthew J. Morris over allegations his behavior after his first arrest on Feb. 8 on contractor fraud allegations indicated he was a flight risk.
Prosecutor Phil Maples told 23rd Judicial District Judge Jessie LeBlanc he was withdrawing the motion in light of Morris' plans to remove property liens that he had filed against many of his customers' homes and because bail set on other charges in other parishes would hold him in jail anyway.
Law enforcement investigators have said the liens, which often were filed after customers of Morris' Complete Construction Contractors balked at inflated prices, have posed an impediment for ex-customers to finish their homes.ย
Morris, 39, 21313 Turkey Creek Drive, Baton Rouge, has been accused of contractor and insurance fraud, misapplication of contractor payments and numerous other counts in Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes, primarily involving victims of the August flood. Terrebonne Parish sheriff's deputies also have accused him of bank fraud and another related count over the use of challenged property liens as collateral for a line of credit from a Houma bank.ย Morris has maintained his innocence to the fraud allegations but says his disputes with customers were civil contractual matters.
LeBlanc also heard testimony about Sheriff's Office efforts to review and download information from more than a dozen computers, a computer server and closer to 15 to 20 cellphones seized from Morris and Complete Construction when he was first arrested Feb. 8.
Det. Sgt. David Baldwin, Ascension's lead investigator in the Morris case, testified the sheriff's intelligence unit work has been slowed by other criminal cases that have taken priority.
Morris' defense attorney, Travis Turner, had asked LeBlanc to have deputies return the computers and cellphones, and argued Tuesday much of the equipment should be turned over in short order, with everything else coming soon.
"At this point, we're talking about some employees' computers (left to be done)," Turner said. ย ย
Baldwin testified the bulk of the equipment could be finished in two weeks. Complete Construction's computer server is in the possession of the ถถา๕h Attorney General's Office, which conducted the search for Ascension deputies in February.
Maples later agreed to turn over what sheriff's investigators have finished downloading, but Judge LeBlanc gave prosecutors 60 days to turn over the rest in light of the other case demands on the sheriff's intelligence unit. ย ย
Morris also aired concerns Tuesday that two of his criminal defense attorneys -- not Turner -- took hundreds of thousands of dollars from him and did not communicate his wishes to prosecutors to help him "get to the bottom of this" so his company could help his customers.ย
Morris' comment came during a brief hearing to weigh whether one of those attorneys, Sara Johnson, should be allowed to withdraw as his attorney over "irreconcilable differences" that, according to a May 11 motion, prevented her from "effectively and meaningfully communicating with Mr. Morris." ย ย
Johnson made that same point before LeBlanc Tuesday, but added that these differences also included a conflict of interest, which Johnson did not describe but said she would share with the judge, if needed, privately.
LeBlanc allowed Johnson to withdraw without receiving the information.
"I understand your concerns Mr. Morris," LeBlanc said. She said there are other avenues he can take if he disagreed with Johnson's representation.
Seth Bloom, another of Morris' criminal attorneys, is also seeking to withdraw but that hearing has been set for June 19.