Trial of former New Orleans 911 Director Tyrell Morris continues into third day

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Prosecutors rested their case today and allowed jurors to see all the evidence one last time. That included the video of the car crash in 2023, as well as interviews Morris conducted after the fact.

Before that, several Orleans Parish District Communication employees were back on the stand to testify against Morris.

Deputy Executive Director Teresa Thompson says Morris altered and deleted the original vehicle policy from the district’s system, even though she was the only person allowed to do so.

OPCD Finance Manager, Cassandra Robert, says Morris paid the $250 insurance deductible, which is normally covered by the OPCD if an employee wasn’t responsible. Morris allegedly said he paid the deductible after being advised to do so by his attorney.

A former office of the inspector general employee, Damian Rodriguez, testified that the video proved that Morris lied about how the crash happened. Morris’s attorney accused the ex-employee of only doing the investigation after it was made public.

With prosecutors resting their case today, the defense was able to bring their witnesses in to testify, giving the jurors a different look at Tyrell Morris.

His attorneys called their first witness to the stand, Tyrell Morris’ friend, who flew in that weekend for his birthday that same night. He explained that when he got to Morris’ home, he wasn’t there, and that he was aware that Morris was involved in an accident earlier in the day.
When he was asked if Morris was intoxicated, he immediately said absolutely not. He explained that Morris was on a sobriety cleanse at the time. His friend told prosecutors that he was asked to testify just yesterday.

Morris said tomorrow will shed a lot of light on why he is innocent.

“I guess what’s got me excited is finally an opportunity for me to say what that is and produce evidence Just like the prosecution did to support what I have reported to be the truth. So I’m just excited, but I’m hoping it’s my hope. At the end of this like I said all this will make sense,” said Morris.

Court is scheduled to resume Friday, Sept. 26 for 9:45 am.

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