An foster mother once accused of having Munchausen by proxy who used to run a home for disabled children is being investigated by a grand jury, after being accused of abuse in lawsuits and official reports for years.
Michelle Morris, 80, ran the Michelle Morris Home for Disabled Children with her husband Larry Kerin. They were licensed by the state to take in six kids at a time. She was paid up to $6,000 per month per child.
But according to past lawsuits filed by the families of some of the kids, and a report by Orange County officials in 2002, Morris ran a home where there were major concerns over the kids' wellbeing.
She surrendered her license in 2019, three weeks after the death of 17-year-old Diane Ramirez, a wheelchair-bound girl who died after vomiting blood while in Morris' care.
Her family had placed her in the home temporarily while finding full-time care for her.
One of the most disturbing allegations is that she coaxed her adopted son, Ryan, into marrying a trucker, 18 years his senior, by telling him he'd get a cell phone of he did.
Ryan's biological family fought the adoption but it was finalized in 2002 after Morris told the court his grandmother - who would have looked after him - didn't adequately understand his disabled needs.
Michelle Morris, 80, ran the Michelle Morris Home for Disabled Children with her husband Larry Kerin. They were licensed by the state to take in six kids at a time. She was paid up to $6,000 per month per child. Since the 1990s, she has been accused of abuse and now, there are reports that a grand jury is investigating her for criminal activity
In 2014, a wedding was held in Morris' backyard, between Ryan, who was 20 at the time, and Sean Spicer, the trucker, who was 38.
Ryan, according to the reports, has the mental capacity of a kindergartener and during the ceremony yelled out: 'Baptize in the name of Jesus.'
His new husband corrected him: 'It’s not a baptism. It’s a wedding.'
Now, The Mercury News reports that a grand jury has been tasked with looking into the allegations against Morris.
Local officials will neither confirm nor deny that an investigation is underway and Morris has not commented on the claims either. Klein and Morris started receiving complaints in the 1990s.
According to a 2019 Orange County Register article, Klein abandoned a nine-year-old non-verbal child at a social services office in 1997 because the couple hadn't been paid by the state to look after him for two months.
Two years later, Morris allegedly took a child in for surgery without the knowledge of the child's biologicals parents, a report by the Orange County Regional Center said.
Another disturbing report was in 2001 when a male staff member was allegedly found naked in bed with a female child. No evidence was found to support the claim.
In 2002, the regional center said it had 'serious concerns' about the 'quality of care' at the home and it claimed Morris suffered Munchausen by proxy, where she imagined illnesses among the kids.
Michelle and her husband adopted Ryan Morris, a boy they took in when he was a young child, in 2002. In 2014, when he was 20, he married Sean Spicer, a trucker who is 18 years
