‘Obvious tension’ between Merced DA, sheriff in wake of homicide case ruling

The relationship between the Merced County district attorney and the Sheriff’s Department detectives who earlier this year arrested his son on suspicion of murder is predictably cold, both sides acknowledged this week.

Ethan B. Morse, son of District Attorney Larry Morse II, was freed from jail Nov. 14 after a Merced County judge said state prosecutors did not have probable cause to hold the younger Morse on a murder charge in connection with the March 30, 2013, death of Bernabed Hernandez-Canela.

Judge Ronald W. Hansen also took the unusual step of making a formal factual finding that Morse and his co-defendant, Jacob Tellez, were not responsible for the death based on the evidence.

It was a decision and a case that will likely be discussed for many years in Merced County, prosecutors and deputies agreed.

The district attorney this week spoke in detail about the case for the first time in an exclusive interview with the Sun-Star. Morse, who has been the district attorney in Merced County since 2006, acknowledged his anger and frustration with Sheriff’s Department investigators and prosecutors from the state attorney general’s office, who prosecuted the case because of the allegations against his son.

“I’m not at all happy with how this all unfolded. As a parent, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t (upset),” Morse said. “It was a failure of epic proportions of the investigative arm of the criminal justice system.”

Morse criticized the evidence assembled in the case and the manner in which that evidence was presented during his son’s preliminary hearing, saying in his more than two decades as a prosecutor he had “never seen a case where the evidence was so pitifully insufficient” that a judge made a factual finding of innocence.

Morse acknowledged anger that his son lost a wrestling scholarship, a job and college money and that he was unable to attend his grandfather’s funeral during his time in jail.

The district attorney strongly suggested the Sheriff’s Department should conduct an internal review and further suggested “consequences” may be appropriate. Morse stopped short of saying he would demand the department conduct such a review and refused to say whether he feels the detectives who investigated the case should be disciplined or reassigned.

“That is not my call to make or position to say, but I can say that if a complete failure of this magnitude happened in my office, I’d want an internal investigation to find what exactly what went wrong to ensure it never happened again,” Morse said.

Sheriff Tom Cavallero and incoming Sheriff-elect Vern Warnke both said they would not conduct any such review.

Both men noted the attorney general’s office also felt the case was strong enough to take to trial, and both men said they stand behind the detectives in the Major Crimes Unit who built the case against the district attorney’s son.

“This administration continues to be exceptionally proud of the outstanding work done by its investigative unit and I have no intention of authorizing an investigation of any type during the remainder of my term,” Cavallero said.

Morse said he hopes to meet with Warnke in the near future to discuss the matter. Warnke said he welcomed “any opportunity” to meet with Morse “to talk about our future relationship as it pertains to protecting the citizens of Merced County.”

Warnke, however, brushed aside the idea of an internal review.

“I don’t feel any need to review anything our investigators have done,” Warnke said. “Our Major Crimes Unit is stellar, and I stand behind them on all their work, including this case.”

Detective Sgt. Chuck Hale, head of the unit, also acknowledged the cold relationship between detectives and the district attorney. Hale also said both sides have continued to work together since Ethan Morse was arrested in late July, noting both offices have collaborated on numerous cases.

“There’s obvious tension between the two offices,” Hale said. “But I can’t say there’s been any significant issues, and I can’t say that it’s affected any other cases to this point.”

Nearly 400 people are employed between both offices, and the district attorney, as his agency’s administrator, does not frequently get involved directly in the nuts and bolts of the hundreds of criminal cases that come through his office each year.

Morse was equally adamant that his anger over the situation would not spill over into his working relationship with the Sheriff’s Department in general.

“I’ve enjoyed a good relationship with them and have always had enormous respect for the sheriff’s office,” Morse said. “While I’m obviously extremely unhappy with how this all unfolded, we will absolutely continue to file cases based on the quality of the evidence, which is what we have always done.”

Morse’s relationship with the state attorney general’s office appears equally, if not even more, strained. Morse blasted state prosecutors, saying they filed the case against his son after reviewing it for less than 24 hours. Morse said state prosecutors could not have sufficiently reviewed the more than 300 pages of reports on a 16-month-old case in that brief time.

“No reputable prosecutor would have made such an irresponsible decision. It is a stain on that office that they filed within 24 hours. It was an inexcusable rush to judgment. It’s embarrassing,” Morse said. “I have zero faith in the trial skills and case evaluation skills of the attorney general’s office after witnessing this episode.”

David Beltran, spokesman for the attorney general, said state prosecutors are still “reviewing options” regarding the homicide case involving Morse’s son, including whether an appeal may be possible, but he did not elaborate and said there was no timetable for making that decision.

Beltran did say Morse’s assertions that state prosecutors filed the case in less than 24 hours were incorrect, saying prosecutors “carefully reviewed and considered all of the evidence before deciding to file against the defendants.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2014 at 7:17 PM with the headline "‘Obvious tension’ between Merced DA, sheriff in wake of homicide case ruling."