Former Senate leader Mike Morgan gets law license back 10 years after bribery conviction

The Oklahoma Capitol is shown at night Tuesday.
The Oklahoma Capitol is shown at night Tuesday.

Former state Senate leader Mike Morgan is being reinstated as a lawyer 10 years after he was convicted of accepting bribes disguised as legal fees.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court voted 5-3 to allow him to practice law again.

Morgan, a Stillwater Democrat, was Senate president pro tem in 2005 and 2006 and co-president pro tem in 2007 and 2008.

He was convicted in Oklahoma City federal court in 2012 of accepting $12,000 in bribes to influence legislation. He testified at trial that he "never sold my seat." He still maintains his innocence.

Morgan, 67, became a lawyer in 1980. The Supreme Court suspended him from practicing law in 2013 after his conviction. He resigned as a lawyer in 2016 after the conviction was upheld on appeal.

In a Jan. 24 opinion, the majority of justices found Morgan had established that he possesses the good moral character and fitness necessary for reinstatement.

"Petitioner has made a considerable effort to rehabilitate himself and the image of the legal profession," Justice Yvonne Kauger wrote for the majority.

She also pointed out that the trial judge commented at the 2013 sentencing that "all of the evidence ... is as consistent with innocence as it is with guilt." and that the conviction "was based on some very suspect evidence."

She further quoted U.S. District Judge Robin Cauthron as saying, "There is certainly a view you could take that would indicate that Mr. Morgan knew what he was doing was wrong and that it was wrong. There is an equally persuasive view, in my opinion, that everything he did was right and not illegal."

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In a sharply worded dissent, Justice Dustin Rowe wrote reinstatement signals to the public that the Supreme Court takes lightly public corruption by attorneys.

"We must remain ever-vigilant of the harm bribery inflicts upon a democracy," Rowe wrote. "And we must take seriously our duty to ensure that the integrity of our profession endures for future generations."

Morgan undermined the ability of honest, hard-working, and well-intentioned members of the legal profession to overcome public mistrust of lawyers when running for public office, Rowe also wrote.

Morgan was originally sentenced to five years on probation and 104 hours of community service. He also was ordered to forfeit $12,000 to the federal government.

He was resentenced in 2016 to 18 months in federal prison.

A federal appeals court ordered the resentencing, saying Cauthron improperly let her disagreement with the jury's guilty verdict influence her decision on punishment. The appeals court called the original sentence intolerable, a miscarriage of justice and “little more than a slap on the wrist.”

He spent 13 months locked up at a federal correctional facility in Arkansas, rooming there with a child molester and a bank robber, according to his reinstatement petition.

He then spent a little more than two months at a halfway house in Oklahoma City. He was released early because of good conduct.

Morgan
Morgan

Mike Morgan accused of taking more than $400,000 in bribes

Morgan was indicted in 2011, along with a lobbyist and a prominent Oklahoma City attorney. All three went to trial before the same jury.

Prosecutors accused Morgan of taking more than $400,000 in bribes from three companies while he was in the Senate. He faced 63 counts.

Jurors convicted Morgan of only one felony count. Prosecutors dropped a count during the trial and jurors on the rest either acquitted Morgan or deadlocked. He was not retried.

The judge dismissed all the lobbyist's counts and half the attorney's counts. Jurors found the attorney not guilty on the remaining counts.

In the testimony that led to the conviction, an operator of assisted-living centers said he asked Morgan at the Capitol in 2006 for help — possibly legislatively — to get state health officials off his back. He told jurors Morgan said to him, “This is the way it works: You pay me a $1,000-a-month retainer.”

He said he paid Morgan a total of $12,000. Morgan in 2007 was the author of assisted-living legislation that became law.

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"I would not risk everything I've worked for my entire life to do the things the government has accused me of," Morgan testified at trial.

The witness, Sam Crosby, was awaiting sentencing on a bank fraud case when he testified against Morgan. The witness later was ordered to pay $1,329,362 in restitution but was not sent to prison.

After his first sentencing, Morgan went to work at Cactus Drilling Co. in Oklahoma City and plans to continue there.

Morgan is grateful to the Supreme Court and intends to move forward in a positive, productive manner, said attorney Drew Neville, who represented him in his reinstatement petition.

Among those who supported Morgan's reinstatement were former Gov. Brad Henry, former Senate leader Glenn Coffee, retired Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Joseph Watt and Payne County District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Ex-Senate leader gets law license back 10 years after bribery conviction