Anderson returns to court in Morton case
Former Williamson County prosecutor Ken Anderson faces jail time and the loss of his law license when he appears in court Friday afternoon to resolve criminal charges and a civil lawsuit arising from his late-1980s prosecution of Michael Morton.
The Georgetown hearing is a rare combination of three separate but related legal issues based on allegations that Anderson hid favorable evidence to secure Morton’s 1987 conviction for a murder he did not commit.
The legal matters include:
• An expected plea deal, said to include several days in jail, that would resolve a felony charge of tampering with evidence, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, and a misdemeanor charge of tampering with a government record.
• Anderson is expected to surrender his law license to settle a civil lawsuit, filed by the State Bar of Texas, accusing him of professional misconduct in the Morton case.
• Anderson also has been ordered to answer a contempt of court charge alleging that he lied during a 1987 pretrial hearing when he told Morton’s trial judge that he had no favorable evidence to provide to Morton. Special prosecutor Richard Roper filed a motion seeking a $500 fine and up to six months in jail on the charge.
Details of Anderson’s settlement agreements will be revealed at Friday’s hearing before District Judge Kelly Moore, several people with knowledge of the case said.
Anderson will be sitting in the defendant’s chair — an unusual vantage point for a man who was Williamson County’s tough-on-crime district attorney for 16 years before becoming a state district judge in 2002. Anderson resigned from the bench in September.
Morton also plans to be in the courtroom to witness the expected end to an unlikely legal drama.
Prosecutors are rarely prosecuted for allegations of on-the-job wrongdoing, but the case against Anderson was a creative effort pursued by Morton’s lawyers, John Raley of Houston along with Barry Scheck and Nina Morrison of the Innocence Project of New York.
Morton, who served almost 25 years in prison, was freed in October 2011 after DNA tests pointed to another man in the murder of Morton’s wife, Christine, who had been beaten to death in the bedroom of their southwestern Williamson County home.
Over the following weeks, Morton’s lawyers shifted attention to Anderson, complaining that their review of Anderson’s files revealed evidence that, under the law, should have been disclosed before Morton’s 1987 trial. Some of that disputed evidence fell apart upon closer scrutiny, but two items would dog Anderson:
• A typewritten transcript of a police interview with Christine Morton’s mother, Rita Kirkpatrick, who revealed that the Mortons’ 3-year-old son had witnessed the murder, described the attacker as a monster and said that Michael Morton was not home at the time.
• A police report about suspicious behavior by an unidentified driver of a green van who had parked and walked into the wooded area behind the Morton house on several occasions before the murder.
The information fit with the defense theory that Christine Morton had been murdered by a stranger who had probably entered the home from the backyard. Both of Morton’s trial lawyers testified under oath that Anderson had not disclosed the police interview or green van report.
Dusting off an obscure Texas law, Morton’s new lawyers pushed for a court of inquiry to examine Anderson’s handling of the Morton prosecution and determine if any state laws had been broken.
After about a year of delays, the court of inquiry convened last February for five days of testimony from witnesses who included Anderson, Morton, lawyers from both sides of the Morton trial and two original jurors.
Two months later, presiding Judge Louis Sturns delivered his decision, finding probable cause to believe that Anderson violated two anti-tampering laws by intentionally hiding the transcript and the green van report, and that he committed criminal contempt of court for lying to Morton’s trial judge. Sturns then signed an arrest warrant for Anderson, who later walked next door to the Williamson County Jail, had his mug shot taken and quickly left after signing a bond.
Sturns also apologized to Morton.
“You had a very difficult ordeal, and you’ve shown a spirit of forgiveness that I find very, very remarkable,” Sturns said. “Obviously, you were the victim of a miscarriage.”
The focus next shifted to the civil court side as the State Bar’s lawsuit against Anderson neared a Sept. 30 trial.
A week before that trial date, Anderson resigned as judge, providing the first indication that a settlement was in the works. Moore soon delayed the trial for six weeks to give time to complete negotiations.
That hearing begins 1:30 p.m. Friday in the same courthouse where Anderson served as a judge for more than a decade.
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/anderson-returns-to-court-in-morton-case/nbktG/?icmp=statesman_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesmanpremium
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