Governors Office Steps in But Mom Still Needs Help

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Governors Office Steps in But Mom Still Needs Help

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                                                                                         Warning some photos WILL be disturbing!

The Governor's office intervened, and mother of deceased African American girl, alleging police misconduct is granted a hearing five years after requesting it. 

Friends thank you so much for your generosity that has brought me this far.  I am very grateful for your generosity.   However, my legal fees are still mounting so more help is needed to continue this battle for justice for my Kathy! 

This long overdue hearing is now scheduled for Dec 14, 15, 16. and 17th.   



That is a four day hearing,  and legal representation for those four days will cost another $5,000- taking my legal fees from the $5,000 (already raised both on and off line) to around $10,000.   Thanks to what we have already been given we've already had a prehearing conference  and one hearing on a motion. 

Can you please share this and encourage others to  do the same.  Challenge others to match your gift - we can do this... and I been in this battle to long to stop now.

Community - as this battle nears its end I desperately need your help with this important and possibly life changing turn of events.  


Background
For unknown reasons even though I followed proper protocol in requesting a hearing to appeal a ruling by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner back in 2015, the 2015 hearing never happened.  I then tried unsuccessfully to pursue other legal avenues and finally requested the Governor's office assistance and now this administrative hearing that I did not get in 2015.

It's will finally be my opportunity to present evidence before a judge that could result in the suicide determination as the manner of death for Katherine Sarah Morris finally being changed to undetermined, which could then result in a full and thorough death investigation.

Previously because I could not afford legal fees, I have carried several major cases prose (I represented myself)  and I believe I have given it a good fight but it has still at times ravaged my health and my finances.  I like some am on a fixed income.  Her dad and I were gearing up to hire an attorney when he suddenly died.  Being a mother left alone to fight this battle after the death of not only Kathy but her dad, I don't regret one step of this journey. 

In my heart ,I promised my daughter that I would take it as far as humanly possible.  I have what I viewed at the time, as the final case which incidentally charges several police officers with misconduct, and is currently sitting in the Court of Special Appeals. That case is separate from this hearing, and  I am sure that this hearing complicates things for the police.   Anyway, I felt that was it, for the word of God says that when you have done all you can, just stand.  It appeared all legal avenues were exhausted and frankly I think that the police and OCME were counting on that as well.  But God..for then came the notice of the granting of the long overdue hearing.

THE CAUSE

My daughter, Katherine Sarah Morris (Kathy) died May 6, 2012.  The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) for the State of Maryland quickly ruled the death of my Kathy a suicide.  Myself and a team of investigators have alleged that for reasons of covering up corruption involving Anne Arundel County’s Police Chief James Teare’s Administration, the police manipulated and or suppressed any and all evidence that would call into question the suicide ruling.   

For eight  years I've been trying to get justice by being heard in a courtroom over my baby with the beautiful eyes. 




BACKGROUND

In 2011 my beautiful daughter Kathy became the victim of a military marriage scam for money.  Kathy was in her fourth and final year at the University of Maryland. 



During what should have been some of the happiest days of her life and  just two weeks before when she should have graduated among the top in her class, her lifeless body was found laying across the front seat of her running gold colored Pontiac in a parking lot at Arundel Mills Mall.

Kathy was a victim of marital fraud, died from carbon monoxide toxicity from charcoal grills lit in her car, and was worth $100,000 dead. Her body was found at Arundel Mills Mall, ruled a suicide at the death scene with still today, no investigation to the contrary.



A previous gofundme yielded the engagement of a forensic pathologist named Dr.  Grossberg who wrote "It is my opinion that the lack of any investigation … is a missing piece of the puzzle that, without which, one cannot rule this case a ‘Suicide,’ no matter how compelling the scene and autopsy findings may be. It is my opinion that the manner of death in this case should be classified as “Undetermined” until a full investigation into the three individuals is performed.” The following is the detail of her letter:





Investigative and law enforcement professionals from around the country do not believe Kathy did this to her self.  Yet for internal reasons it is believed that AAC police never fully investigated. It is believed that the Medical Examiner believed the police because they were the police.   No matter how much evidence to the contrary they were standing by what they said and I have fought this long arduous battle.   Hopefully the climate in the nation have caused a shift in the wind...

It's my personal belief that the OCME made its erroneous determination based on manipulated, false and suppressed information from the Anne Arundel County Police Department.  My team of amazing investigators do not disagree with the medical examiners finding of Kathy dying from carbon monoxide toxicity from the grills lit in her car.  The question and the challenge has always been how did the carbon monoxide get into Kathy's system. 

Recently a strong letter of solidarity endorsed by key civil rights organizations including the United Black Clergy, the Anne Arundel County NAACP, Caucus of African American Leaders, Connecting the Dots, Communities Actively Seeking Transparency (CAST), March on Maryland, and Showing Up for Racial Justice Annapolis & AACo was sent to County Executive Pittman stating that

“After extensive research by Reverend Morris and experts retained by the family, many mistakes, possible  evidence manipulation and “flat-out” inaccuracies have been revealed concerning the Anne Arundel County Police Department’s handling of Kathy’s death investigation”.

The letter goes on to state "In the 2012 death investigation, there was no forensic link between Kathy and the purchase of charcoal grills. This remained to be true in the later “re-investigation” by Anne Arundel County Police Department.  There was also no evidence of smoke or fire damage to the car’s dashboard, seats or on the windows as one would expect if the grills were lite in Kathy’s car. There was no explanation that if the grills were lite outside the car in the parking lot, why no one saw the fire. If the grills were lite somewhere else and later put in the car with Kathy, how did she stay alive for hours in such close proximity to the lite charcoal grills, an active source of carbon monoxide."

It further states all of the following  " None of the questions raised above have ever been answered.. Despite the fragility and inaccuracies in the 2012 investigation and “re-investigation,” a homicide panel ruled that the Kathy’s death was suicide because they appeared to have based their conclusion on false or manipulated information provided to them by the Anne Arundel County Police Department.

None of the items that were presumed to play a role in Kathy’s death were ever linked forensically to Kathy. Not the purchase of the charcoal grills, the lighter or the over the counter sleeping pills. These items were not linked to anyone investigated. It is as if they appeared out of nowhere.

In fact, the lack of an evidentiary nexus between the person who died and the alleged mode of death looked so bad in Kathy’s case that apparently an explanation was needed to preserve the professional reputation of Detective Carbonaro, who conducted the “re-investigation.” Sergeant John Poole (#1442) in an internal email dated  November 22, 2013 laid out the lack of evidentiary evidence in the Kathy’s death investigation stating the  following:

“As a side note, Detective Carbonaro, who is an extremely thorough and capable investigator did not originally acquire the above details due to the fact that he was given specific marching orders regarding the initial investigation and instructed not to deviate from same.” (Emphasis Added.)

Inference may be drawn that “instructed not to deviate from same” was possibly direction given by the former Anne Arundel County Police Chief Teare’s administration to make sure that the case remained closed as a suicide. At that time, Teare was embroiled in a corruption scandal under former County Executive Leopold. Since the pronouncement “not to deviate from same,” the Anne Arundel County Police Department has passed Kathy’s case from one administration to the next, without anyone in government looking into the details of this investigation with a fresh lens.

This has been an arduous fight for Reverend Morris, who has endured abuse from both the Anne Arundel Police Department and the Anne Arundel County government. One example is the manipulations and prevarications surrounding the missing video camera footage of the Arundel Mills Mall parking lot during the hours before and after Kathy’s death.

According to documents released in 2013, the Anne Arundel County Police Department repeatedly stated that the camera that shot the video the night that Kathy died was motion sensitive, implying no motion – no footage. Reverend Morris was also told that a special machine was needed to view the video and was instructed by the Anne Arundel County Police Department to take the videotape to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), so that the FBI could help her with viewing the video. All of these statements appear to be deliberately misleading.

The videotape did not require special equipment to view it and the stagnation of the tape was not because the cameras were motion sensitive. Also, in a deposition, it was revealed that there were sections missing from the video at direction of Anne Arundel County Police Officer Keith Clark. It was not until 2018 that current Police Chief Timothy Altomare informed Carl Snowden of the Caucus of African American Leaders that the video was, in fact, deleted.

This missing video appears to fall in line with the edict from the Teare administration – don’t “deviate from same!”

It was stated that I have "endured abuse" from the Anne Arundel County Police Department  and the following is an example as recently the Chief of Police Timothy Altomare had come under fire for his harsh and inappropriate words spoken to press about me in a news article titled, “Protesters rally around longtime critic of Anne Arundel polic​e after an incident at a local Denny’s” published on July 3, 2020.   I personally believe in my heart that he  Mocked me several times publicly over matters related to my daughters death investigation.

His painful remarks elicited a letter writing campaign to the County Executive by citizens like Renee Cantori who said “I find it reprehensible and terrifying that a top public official would make public conjectures and accusations of this nature about any citizen. Chief Altomare used his official title and position to publicly discredit Rev. Morris. To me that is an abuse of power, as, due to his position, his words hold a lot of power. Additionally, it sets the precedent of victim blaming and bullying and erodes public trust.”



Additional background on manipulated and  suppressed evidence from police in the death investigation of an innocent young and beautiful African american young woman.  Remember we have lived in a climate where matters related to black and brown people are not treated the same - including investigating harm to them.

In 2012 Anne Arundel County was rocked with a scandal that made national news. The County Executive John Leopold was convicted of corruption.  Then Police Chief James Teare was allegedly asked to resign in lieu of facing criminal charges.  In the midst of it evolved the mishandled death investigation of Kathy.  Released communications reveal that internally they nicked named it "the Keith" after an inexperienced Officer Keith Clark  arrived at the death scene but processed it without summoning homicide detectives. 

Credible evidence shows there was a rush to a suicide ruling.  Clark  Googled the method of death car side and it came back a form of suicide.  I Googled the method of death that same week and it came back a form of murder that was easily staged as suicide.  At the top of the Google results was a story about a woman who had murdered three men, staged it as suicide, which the police accepted, and it was not until  they could not find the keys in the car with the third man, that they realized he was murdered and so were the two other men.   All three men were given sleeping pills mixed in something, and then exposed to the carbon monoxide toxicity of fumes from charcoal grills.   Fact..check out Kanae Kijima the "Black Widow"

In the flawed death investigation in 2012 parts of video surveillance footage would go missing from four different cameras.  In 2018  Chief Altomare announces the footage was deleted. But wait a minute.  That means the footage was deleted in 2012 and the police knew it.  But in 2013, they sent this mom on  a wild goose chase to the FBI instructing her to get their help to get it to play. They also write in 2013 and 2014 in their own internal reports (that inquiring agencies would read) false reasons as to why the footage was missing.  But wait... they knew it was deleted in 2012. 

The to discredit my claims of misconduct, they boast of a Homicide Panel's review of the death investigation to .  But internal memos confirm they LIED TO THE HOMICIDE PANEL.  Internal memos show they lied along with issuing false reports about the DNA findings .   We're talking  GPS cell phone location settings (that showed her phone not where her body was found at points through the night) that were conveniently deleted from police reports.

Most of all we're talking death scene photos that do not equate to a girl going to sleep from carbon monoxide.  Her body is 9 inches longer than the compartment its stretched across and the pictures show her face down almost squished into the well of the door.  DOUBT ME THEN TRY LYING DOWN AND PLACING YOUR ARM ACROSS YOUR BODY WITH THE PALM UP THE WAY MY CHILD'S ARM IS PICTURED ACROSS HER BODY.  Remember this is the way the body would have JUST DROOPED INTO POSITION. In addition a then ACTIVE DUTY POLICE OFFICER rang in after his personal review of  the photo's and the position of her body his statement to me was  "Maam your daughter did not do that to her self".

My friends, what Chief Altomare and those other officers didn't count on was a Mother, other professionals and friends that were not going away.  Can you imagine how hard this has been.  One can not fully understand the travesty of this injustice until they review the evidence.   FOR THE RECORD - THE POSITION OF KATHY'S BODY WHEN FOUND (WHICH SUSTAINED SERIOUS POST DEATH BURNS) COULD NOT HAVE BEEN DONE BY HERSELF.  THE BODY  has the APPEARANCE OF HAVING BEEN STUFFED OR PRESSED INTO A SPACE TO MAKE IT FIT.  

There was even an open can of soda with a straw in it sitting upright on the rear backseat floor of her vehicle that police never..according to their own records fingerprinted or checked for DNA.  Police also claim they could not fingerprint the exterior of the car because it rained.  The death scene photos clearly show a dry car and dry ground..
WRITTEN EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT SOMEONE IN AUTHORITY GAVE A DIRECT ORDER ABOUT THIS CASE STAYING A SUICIDE AND IT MY PERSONAL OPINION THAT IT WAS JAMES TEARE and then several officers concurred with the cover-up.  In my opinion they were Commander John Poole and Vince Carbonaro.



Yes, I am a mother who has not kept anything in reserve in this battle.  What else would drive a mother to post the pictures above ?  I will not cease until the war is won and perhaps my Kathy is meant to be the poster child in this war for greater police accountability and transparency.

Thank you and I know I can count on you to act now!  No donation is too small.  For this coming hearing time is of the essence so I ask you one more time to help me continue as we approach the finish line in this long war.  Can you contribute now, today?  Please share and ask others to do the same!!!  Thank you and visit forkathyssake.com  or even mail a donation to P.O. Box 508, Odenton MD 21113


 

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Marguerite Morris
Organizer
Odenton, MD
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