Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Orleans Parish Communication District Executive Director Tyrrell Morris officially resigned Monday, July 10, after six years in the position.
Morris is under investigation, involving accusations that he crashed a city-owned car and tried to hide it.
While Morris has stepped down, WGNO legal analyst Cliff Cardone says it may not stop serious legal action from being taken in the near future.
“He could be subjected to criminal charges of filing a false police report or filing false public records. One would be a felony, and the other one will be a misdemeanor. So he’s really in jeopardy of perhaps even going to jail,” said Cardone.
Cardone says it seems unlikely that Morris would be able to avoid any penalty.
“That may be part of a plea negotiation down the road, but the crime is already taken place assuming it is indeed looked at as a crime. This type of behavior creates a lack of public confidence in the city administration and the public official himself. So, it’s just a black marker for the city and the administration itself,” he said.
In the end, Cardone says the allegations against Morris will hurt the public’s trust in the city administration long after Morris’s resignment.
“He should have done the right thing in the beginning and follow the proper protocol and probably this would have amounted to nothing more than simply an error in judgment, but now all of a sudden it becomes potentially a crime.”
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