Diane Ramírez, courtesy Ángel Cadena Ramirez. 

Michelle Morris-Kerin, a former Riverside County foster home operator initially held on $1 million bail in the death of a child and lewd conduct with others in her care, was ordered released on $50,000 bond Monday, Jan. 10, by a judge who said his hands were tied.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer’s release order, which included a long list of conditions, came over the strong objections of the District Attorney’s Office, the mother of the late “Princess” Diane Ramirez and the Orange County family of one of the alleged victims.

A new state Supreme Court ruling left him no choice, the judge said.

“Humphreys was a landmark case that changed the landscape,” Freer said. “It’s not a request from the Supreme Court. It’s not, ‘If you would like to.’ It’s the law of the land.”

The Supreme Court ruled that California’s old money bail system violated federal and state constitutions. Whether an accused person remained locked up awaiting trial depended not on careful, individualized public safety calculations, but on the person’s ability to post the sum specified in a county’s bail schedule, the court said.

Instead, judges must now consider a defendant’s ability to pay money bail as well as the seriousness of the charges and past criminal history. Judges must choose the least-restrictive alternative that protects public safety.

Monica Mukai, the biological aunt of Ryan Morris, one of the alleged victims, implored the judge not to let Morris-Kerin out of jail.

‘Manipulative’

“Not for punishment, but for the protection of the people who have been grossly, grossly harmed,” said Mukai, of San Juan Capistrano. “She is incredibly manipulative.”

Ryan Morris, right, and husband Sean Spicer, at their wedding in 2014., Spicer became Morris’ legal guardian. (Photo courtesy probate court file) 

Morris-Kerin has petitions pending in probate court for legal guardianship of several of her adopted, disabled adult children, despite the serious felony charges. Ryan Morris is one of them, and his biological family has been battling Morris-Kerin to be closer to him for decades.

Ryan Morris has the intellectual capacity of a kindergartner, and Morris-Kerin has poisoned him against his biological family, Mukai and the biological relatives maintain. Morris-Kerin also gave Ryan Morris permission to marry a man nearly twice his age, despite the fact that Ryan Morris doesn’t have the capacity to understand marriage.

“It’s clear that people think you’re an absolute danger,” the judge told Morris-Kerin, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Ramirez and lewd and lascivious conduct with dependent adults entrusted to her care. She has been held in Riverside County jail for five months.

So Freer detailed a long list of conditions that must be met for Morris-Kerin to stay out of jail: She has to continuously wear a GPS monitor. She may not contact her children, the alleged victims, directly or through third parties. She may not attempt to contact witnesses. She may not take care of anyone, child or adult. She must check in with the court once a week.

If she deviates from the order, “That would be a grave mistake” that will land her back behind bars, Freer said. “Do you understand?” he asked.

“Yes, your honor,” she said.

The judge also issued a criminal protective order covering the 11 alleged victims in the case, including Ryan Morris.

‘Many good years’

Morris-Kerin was arrested in August for failing to get help for Ramirez, a desperately ill foster child, as well as sexual abuse of disabled people. Her husband, Edward Lawrence “Larry” Kerin, is accused of neglect in relation to the child’s death, and is charged with lewd conduct as well. He is out of jail on $35,000 bond.

Michelle Morris yells at reporters to get off her property, a 7,000-square-foot house in Murrieta in 2016. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG) 

Morris-Kerin, 80, has skin cancer, heart issues and an enlarged aorta, Deputy Public Defender Richard Briones-Colman told the judge. She has little money, is not a flight risk and poses no danger to the public, he said.

“She had many, many good years as a caretaker,” he said. “The consensus is she stayed in the business too long, working 12 to 16 hours a day, as a 79-year-old woman.”

Morris-Kerin and her husband sold their Calle Bandido home near Murrieta for $1.4 million in December, according to real estate records. By the time they settled debts, they had just $60,000 left, and spent $48,000 of that on a much smaller new home, Briones-Colman said. They have only $12,000 or so remaining, not enough to afford the high bail, which initially was $1 million but later lowered to $500,000.

Deputy District Attorney Jason Stone countered that Morris-Kerin was getting fine medical care while in jail, and that she could have used the proceeds of her home sale in December to post the $500,000 bail rather than buy another home. That decision “should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Stone said.

Briones-Colman countered that it’s not enough just to have cash to cover the bond — defendants also must have substantial property as well.

The next hearing is set for Jan. 25. Mukai worries about what Morris-Kerin might try to do once out of jail.

“I don’t think those restrictions are enough,” Mukai said. “I believe the judge should have kept her in jail to protect society.”