LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Moments after a jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquittal, a judge today dismissed three counts of grand theft from an elder against a memorabilia collector who briefly acted as comic book legend Stan Lee's business manager before Lee's death in 2018.
Superior Court Judge George Lomeli said he was inclined to dismiss the case against Keya Morgan in the interests of justice unless the prosecution had other evidence to present against him in a retrial.
Deputy District Attorney Jeffrey Stodel said he had no other evidence other than what was already presented during the trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. The judge subsequently granted defense attorney Alex Kessel's request to dismiss the case.
``This has been 4 1/2 years in the making,'' Kessel told reporters outside court after the judge's decision. ``My client shouldn't suffer another trial ... There was never really any evidence of guilt, ever. There was character assassination.''
Jurors deliberated about 1 1/2 days before announcing that they were unable to reach a verdict, with the foreperson telling the judge that 11 of the 12 jurors had voted in favor of acquitting the 47-year-old man. The panel had indicated Monday afternoon that it was having difficulty reaching a verdict, but the judge said then that he didn't think they had ``deliberated sufficiently.''
Morgan was charged in May 2019 with the three felony counts of grand theft from an elder, one felony count of false imprisonment of an elder by use of fraud and deceit and one misdemeanor count of elder abuse, but the latter two counts were dismissed after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence against the defendant to allow those counts to proceed to trial.
In his opening statement, the prosecutor told jurors that Lee -- a man known as the ``father of superheroes'' including Spider-Man -- was ``frail'' and suffered from ``numerous deficits'' in the last year of his life, and that Morgan almost immediately ``began firing those around Mr. Lee'' after becoming the elderly man's business manager.
The prosecutor alleged that Morgan demanded a total of more than $222,000 in cash from autograph consolidators for items of memorabilia that Lee signed in the pool house at his Los Angeles property in 2018, and contended that Morgan was ``exploiting his knowledge'' about Lee's short term memory problems to ``steal from Mr. Lee.''
Stodel told jurors that none of the cash from those autograph sessions wound up in Lee's bank accounts.
Kessel countered that the cash was ``given to Stan Lee's daughter, with Stan Lee's knowledge, with Stan Lee's consent.'' He said the woman had been ``supported'' for her whole life by her father and mother.
He disputed the prosecutor's characterization of Lee's cognitive issues, contending that Lee was ``knowing what was going on at all times.''
He told jurors during his opening statement that he had ``no doubt you will have tremendous reasonable doubt about the guilt of my client.''
Outside court after the case against him was dismissed, Morgan said, ``This is a horrible accusation, very malicious.''
Lee died in November 2018 at age 95.
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