Carolina Investors: Earle E. Morris Jr.’s trial

GREENVILLE — Good faith. The criminal trial of Earle E. Morris Jr. comes down to how that intent is interpreted, prosecutors and defense attorneys said Tuesday.

The people of the Upstate, in good faith, relied on Morris to be honest with them about their investments in Carolina Investors, Assistant S.C. Attorney General Sherri Lydon told jurors in her opening statement.

Joel Collins, representing Morris, countered that his client believed what he told investors. Collins promised to introduce evidence proving that as the trial proceeds.

A jury of six men and six women will decide Morris’ fate.

Lydon, who is leading the prosecution team against him, said Morris’ name and reputation carried weight in the Upstate.

Morris, 76, was a former lieutenant governor, former comptroller general, former Carolina Investors board chairman. But, having grown up in Pickens, Morris was considered a neighbor and friend by many of the company’s clients.

So it was Morris’ face that Carolina Investors plastered on billboards. Those advertisements, Lydon said, told current and potential investors that the man they trusted stood behind Carolina Investors, even as the company’s parent, HomeGold Financial Inc., bled millions of dollars from the late 1998 until it failed in 2003.

“Show them Earle Morris, and they might not see the losses,” was how Lydon characterized the marketing campaign.

And the people of the Upstate, in good faith, she said, believed Morris when he told them, “Carolina Investors is as solid as the Rock of Gibralter.” Lydon said Morris knew this was false, and yet said such statements anyway.

“This is a case of lying,” she said.

Collins did not disagree when it was his turn to address the jury. The case is about lying, he said, but not on Morris’ part.

Indeed, the attorney said, jurors needed only to look to the third row of seats in a mostly filled courtroom to see where Morris placed his faith.

Collins pointed to Lydon’s boss, S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, who was in court to watch the opening statements. The defense attorney displayed quotes printed in The State newspaper about Carolina Investors’ failure and the inability of McMaster’s office to prevent the financial disaster.

“If the attorney general didn’t find anything wrong with the way business was being done, then there wasn’t anything wrong with the way business was being done,” Collins said.

He said his client is old, suffers from prostate cancer and is now penniless. He, too, lost thousands of dollars when Carolina Investors failed.

Collins argued that Morris, serving as a part-time board chairman, had to rely on the judgment of other staffers and state officials, including the attorney general, who also heads the state Securities Commission.

It wasn’t clear whether this argument made an impression on the jury, but it did not go over well with Lydon, her staff and her boss.

Three times during Collins’ opening arguments, she objected. During a brief break, she pressed her complaint, and Judge James Johnson agreed, instructing Collins to refrain from giving testimony.

Collins closed, reminding the jury about Lydon’s claim that Morris’ guilt or innocence hinges on one question: Did he lie?

“Did Earle Morris, after living a life of service to his fellow South Carolinians, especially those disadvantaged — the blind, mentally retarded, suffering from alcohol and drug abuse — did he, after a 50-year career doing that, do a 180 (degree) turn to become a scheming, conniving criminal?”

Reach Werner at (803) 771-8509 or bwerner@thestate.com