The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office will not reissue a once-dismissed gun charge against a newly elected member of Detroit’s Board of Police Commissioners.
Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy, noted in a Friday email that the prosecutor’s office turned down a warrant request from the Detroit Police Department because the weapon in the case has since been destroyed.
The decision comes days after Morris called a press conference with his attorneys and vowed he’d continue serving on the board amid a social media flap with Detroit police spurred by the gun charge case that led to calls for his resignation.
Edward Martell, an attorney for Morris, said Friday that his client and the legal team “are thankful that Commissioner Morris can put this behind him and focus solely on serving the residents of Detroit in his role as a Police Commissioner.”
Miller said that the 2021 case against Morris was originally dismissed at the preliminary examination because several officers failed to appear to testify. Typically, when officers fail to appear, the prosecutor’s office asks that the case be reissued. In this case, it didn’t happen, the prosecutor’s office learned after a news reporter inquired about the case, Miller said. The case was then resubmitted for review on Jan. 20.
“During the warrant review, it was confirmed that the weapon in the case was destroyed by the Detroit Police Department in 2024,” Miller said in a news release. “Due to the lack of this key piece of evidence, the warrant request (from Detroit Police Department) has been denied.”
The prosecutor’s office originally issued charges against Morris on Dec. 2, 2021, in connection with an incident that occurred on Nov. 31, 2021, when Morris allegedly had a concealed pistol. He was charged at the time with felon in possession of a firearm.
Morris, who represents District 3, was sworn in last month. The civilian police oversight board member was accused of doxxing multiple Detroit police officers on social media. As a result, the National Association of Police Organizations sent a letter to the police board, calling for Morris to resign; members of the Detroit Police Department also urged Morris to step down during a BOPC meeting this month.
Morris later apologized on Facebook for “my social media negligence.”
Morris also has been open about a guilty plea he entered in 2009 to impersonating a notary to change deeds, which landed him in prison for two years. While campaigning last fall as a write-in candidate for BOPC in the November general election, Morris spoke about his past troubles with law enforcement candidly and said that he viewed his run as a “Detroit redemption story.”