NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Inspector General is recommending criminal charges against Tyrell Morris, the former head of the city’s 9-1-1 Communications District, for allegedly falsifying an insurance claim and altering public records after a minor accident in his public vehicle.
Inspector General Ed Michel issued the report Thursday, following a monthslong investigation of Morris’ actions after a May 7 fender-bender on Elysian Fields Avenue at Interstate 610. The report recommends two criminal charges against Morris. It also says Morris’ attorney told the OIG Morris would not be interviewed for the investigation because he invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The IG’s report backs up the findings of a WWL Louisiana Investigation in June, which analyzed video of the accident and metadata of Orleans Parish Communication District policy documents.
Morris stated in a police report that he was in the far-right lane and the other driver came from behind him, went around him to the right and clipped his bumper. But there’s no shoulder on the road there and a tree would make such a maneuver impossible, the report found.
As WWL reported in June, the video of the accident clearly showed the other driver was waiting at a stop light in the right lane and Morris was waiting in the center lane, then drove into the other car when the light turned green.
The IG’s report backs up WWL’s findings that Morris appears to have lied in his report to the insurance company, which the IG says may constitute insurance fraud.
WWL also broke the story in June that computer metadata showed Morris altered an OPCD policy document four days after the accident, to change it so the policy no longer required a drug and alcohol screening of every OPCD employee after an accident. The document was altered so it looked like it was still from 2019, but only required drug tests if an accident resulted in injuries. The IG’s report Thursday confirmed that and stated it may be a violation of a state law against injuring public records.
Asked by WWL Louisiana if he planned to take up the case, District Attorney Jason Williams said, "We take all referrals, wherever they come from."
The IG’s investigators also interviewed the other driver involved in the accident, William Robinson. Robinson admitted to OIG investigators he was driving without a license or insurance. He also told investigators that Morris presented himself as a police officer, telling him, “If I call another cop, you’re going to jail.”
This summer, WWL questioned Mayor LaToya Cantrell about why Morris often wore a uniform that looked like a police commander’s and a badge that’s similar to an NOPD badge, even though he was not a commissioned law enforcement officer and no such uniform existed before he started wearing it.
On the day WWL broke the story, Morris announced his resignation but said he would stay on as executive director for almost three more months. Cantrell backed him publicly and said reports of the altered policy and falsified insurance reports were just allegations. But as the news stories mounted and more details emerged, Morris relented and resigned in mid-July, two months earlier than planned.
City Council members Helena Moreno and JP Morrell sent OPCD and Cantrell a letter in June calling on them to suspend Morris, but they didn't. Moreno said there was a lot more than the car accident and the altered records that concerned her about Morris' leadership at OPCD, including no-bid contracts he granted, changes he made to emergency reporting without board approval and Morris' side job as a real estate agent.
"Now that he's been gone for a while, we're just learning about one problem after the next after the next and how much OPCD really deteriorated under his leadership, and now major flaws within the system that we're now having to repair," she said.
OPCD issued a statement saying new director Karl Fasold was working "with the OIG to ensure agency best practices are met."
Morris’ defense attorney, Brian Capitelli, told WWL Louisiana he had not seen the OIG’s report and would review it before commenting. After the station sent him the report, he did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The IG report says that Morris declined to be interviewed by investigators by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
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