NEW ORLEANS — A long and lucrative NOPD career came to a disgraceful ending Tuesday when 32-year veteran ex-cop Todd Morrell pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of payroll fraud.
Morrell, a longtime bomb squad leader who rose to sergeant, stood ramrod straight answering, “Sir, yes sir,” to U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey as he admitted to six of 12 counts of payroll fraud – technically wire fraud – that he was charged with in January.
Routinely among the highest-paid NOPD officers, Morrell, 57, admitted to a variety of dodges in which he was paid for hours he didn’t work. Morrell retired in 2021 as the federal investigation against him began heating up.
In two counts, Morrell admitted double-dipping, getting paid for regular duties while also getting paid for working off-duty detail hours at the Fairgrounds.
In three counts, Morrell admitted getting paid for the Fairground detail while he was actually engaging in his hobby of car racing. In two of those instances, he admitted racing cars at NOLA Motorsports in Avondale.
In another, he said he was actually racing in Texas.
In the final count, Morrell collected for hours he was on the clock at the Fairgrounds detail but in reality wasn’t working at all.
The government said the instances stretched from 2019 to 2021.
The other six counts against Morrell were dismissed as part of a plea deal arranged with his defense attorney William “Billy” Gibbens.
Wearing a gray suit, Morrell offered no comment as he left the federal courthouse with Gibbens.
The allegations against Morrell, brother of City Council member J.P. Morrell, surfaced amid a wide-ranging review of payroll discrepancies among NOPD officers.
Morrell originally blamed clerical mistakes by the city’s off-duty detail system OPSE – Office of Police Secondary Employment – and the city acknowledged poor cross-referencing between regular hours, overtime hours and detail hours.
But while other officers were either cleared or their oversights handled administratively, Morrell garnered added scrutiny as a consistent six-figure earner, at one point topping $200,000 in a single year.
While Morrell faces up to 20 years for each count of wire fraud, he is expected to be sentenced far below the maximum. His sentencing is set for Feb. 25 following a standard pre-sentence investigation.
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