IAPE Evidence Blog

The Okla­homan, NewsOK.com, newsok.com
BYLINE: RANDY ELLIS rellis@opubco.com
Link to Article

Wood­ward, OK

Michael Albert Mor­ton, Chris­tine England-Morton — Pho­tos provided

WOODWARD — A for­mer police detec­tive was accused Thurs­day of repeat­edly steal­ing metham­phet­a­mine from a police evi­dence room to sup­port his then-wife’s drug habit.

For­mer detec­tive Michael Albert Mor­ton, 55, was charged with 13 drug-related felony counts.

Mor­ton told a dis­trict attorney’s inves­ti­ga­tor that he stole metham­phet­a­mine from the evi­dence room for Chris­tine England-Morton because he didn’t want her “look­ing for it on the street, where it is dan­ger­ous,” accord­ing to a state­ment by an Okla­homa State Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion agent.

The thefts occurred from May 1, 2009, through March 27, 2010, pros­e­cu­tors allege. The cou­ple divorced in June 2010.

Mor­ton faces up to life in prison because he and his then-wife were within 2000 feet of Wood­ward High School on some of the occa­sions he allegedly gave her stolen drugs. He also faces up to $120,000 in fines.

Pleaded not guilty

Mor­ton pleaded not guilty Thurs­day in Wood­ward County Dis­trict Court and was released on a per­sonal recog­ni­zance bond.

Mor­ton took his then-wife along with him on sev­eral of the thefts and told her he wanted to make sure the metham­phet­a­mine came from evi­dence that was sched­uled for destruc­tion, the OSBI agent stated. Mor­ton report­edly showed her the loca­tion of those drugs and resealed the envelopes after remov­ing the methamphetamine.

The scheme unrav­eled toward the end of their mar­riage when England-Morton, 45, went to the evi­dence room on her own dur­ing the early morn­ing hours of March 27, 2010. She kicked open the door, ripped open evi­dence envelopes and stole the amphet­a­mine inside, accord­ing to the OSBI affidavit.

When she was con­fronted by Wood­ward police offi­cers, she told them she was look­ing for her husband.

A cou­ple weeks later, she gave police a state­ment that she had kicked open the door of the evi­dence room while look­ing for alco­hol to steal. She is cur­rently serv­ing a three-year sen­tence for injur­ing a pub­lic build­ing and a four-year sen­tence for pos­ses­sion of a firearm while under the super­vi­sion of the Okla­homa Depart­ment of Corrections.

Role admit­ted

Mor­ton admit­ted his role in the metham­phet­a­mine thefts while tes­ti­fy­ing dur­ing an unre­lated 2010 fed­eral court hear­ing involv­ing a child pornog­ra­pher. Mor­ton also admit­ting help­ing his then-wife con­coct the story that she was look­ing for alco­hol rather than drugs.

OSBI agent Mor­gan Wilkin­son said an inven­tory of the evi­dence room revealed there appeared to have been tam­per­ing with about 67 items of evi­dence con­tain­ing metham­phet­a­mine and/or other ille­gal drugs.

“It appeared that the major­ity of the cases where drugs were taken, the drugs had been slated for destruc­tion,” he wrote.

Mor­ton resigned July 12, 2010.

“OSBI’s inves­ti­ga­tion included a com­plete inven­tory of the evi­dence room, with rec­om­men­da­tions to cor­rect poten­tial secu­rity prob­lems and address pro­to­cols,” Har­vey Ruther­ford, Wood­ward police chief, stated Thurs­day in a pre­pared state­ment. “On the basis of those pro­pos­als, pol­icy and pro­ce­dure revi­sions have been imple­mented, and the evi­dence room has been com­pletely upgraded to include state-of-the-art secu­rity systems.”

Chris­tine England-Morton
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Michael Albert Mor­ton
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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