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Deputy District Attorney John Morris enters 2014 race for Los Angeles County Assessor.
Deputy District Attorney John Morris vows to end ‘the criminal culture deep inside the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office.”
By Brian Hews and Brian Hews
(Los Angeles) Deputy District Attorney John Morris has embarked on a mission to become the next Assessor of Los Angeles County, and the one person who has motivated him to run in the 2014 campaign more than anyone is current Assessor John Noguez.
Noguez is facing more than 30 felony counts of forgery, accepting of bribes and other corruption allegations in what Morris’s former boss District Attorney Steve Cooley hailed as “the biggest political corruption case in the last 40 years in LA County.”
“The actions of John Noguez have motivated me to run for Assessor,” Morris told Hews Media Group-Community Newspaper in a sit down interview held at a Commerce steak house.
Morris has served as a criminal prosecutor in the LA County District Attorney’s Office for the past 23 years, having tried over 200 criminal trials, including over 100 jury trials and 33 homicide trials.
“Everything starts at the top at the Assessor’s office. John Noguez has created the culture of corruption and I will clean it up beginning on my first day in office,” Morris said.
“It makes me sick to my stomach to see what Noguez did to this office,” Morris said. “I am not going to have a political consultant in my administration if I am elected Assessor, period.”
Morris served as the Head Deputy of the Healthcare Fraud Division inside the DA’s office, and turned it into the statewide leader for prosecuting health care related fraud crimes.
Morris also pointed to his lengthy professional resume as a “real positive” that will appeal to voters and taxpayers who want “honesty restored” to the Assessor’s operation. He advocates that if a future Assessor is “charged with a felony in the future, that he or she must forfeit his salary and benefits immediately.”
Noguez, who has been on a paid leave of absence for almost one year now, is still collecting more than $205,000 in salary and pension benefits. “John Noguez is still the Assessor of Los Angeles County, yet he hasn’t been to work since the current crisis began to unfold, and I will make sure than never happens again,” Morris said.
Photo from the John Morris for Assessor campaign.
Asked if he has ever met Noguez in the past, Morris said, “no, but he tried to ‘LIKE’ my Campaign page on Facebook. I denied his request.”
Morris told HMG-CN that his campaign will be focused on four key areas with “reforming the Assessor’s Office and ending corruption,” at the top of the list.
“We need to guarantee fair assessments and no favoritism should ever be given to a campaign contributor or personal friend of the Assessor in the future,” Morris stressed. He also said that he will “protect Proposition 13, and will provide knowledgeable staff to answer questions when the public calls.”
Morris is married with four children, three daughters and one son. He was born in Burbank at St. Joseph’s Medical Center, raised in Sepulveda and Northridge in the San Fernando Valley. Morris is a graduate of Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino and earned his Juris Doctor in May 1988 from Loyola Law School.
Morris has also had articles he pinned on “Fraud Criminal Statues” in the LA County District Attorney’s Fraud Legal Report as well as a piece titled “Battling the Underground Economy.”
“My family is the most important thing in my life,” Morris said, and has been a volunteer basketball and soccer coach for 20 years for children between the ages of 5 and 13 years old.
Website is www.Morris4Assessor.com
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When is the election?
Steve:
The Primary Election is in June, 2014. If no candidates get 50 percent of the vote PLUS ONE…a run off election will be held in November of 2014.
Randy Economy