Ryan Morris on his first day of classes at Saddleback College. (Courtesy Monica Mukai)

The judge had so much to weigh, it seemed.

Declarations from the psychiatrist and therapist saying no, not yet: Ryan Morris is still vulnerable, adjusting to a new home with his biological family for the first time in his life, away from his adoptive mom (who stands accused of involuntary manslaughter, cruelty to children and dependent adults, and lewd/lascivious conduct) and his husband (who threatened to send him to the psych ward and/or end their marriage when Morris “misbehaved”). Morris shouldn’t visit with such folks just now, the health professionals said.

Then there was the petition from Morris’s husband: He hasn’t been allowed to see Morris since the bio family took over guardianship in May, and asked the court to step in and order regular visits between them.

And finally, there was the request from Morris himself. At age 29, he has the intellectual capacity of a kindergartener. He wasn’t in the courtroom, but he would, indeed, like to see his husband, Morris’ attorney told the judge.

In a highly unusual and contentious case that has raged for years — raising profoundly uncomfortable questions about the hard-won right for disabled people to marry and have sex lives, just like everyone else, and their right to be protected from abuse and undue influence — a Riverside County judge on Wednesday, Aug. 30 said that there was really no choice to make at all.

The law, especially in the wake of the Britney Spears conservatorship debacle, requires the court to honor Morris’ wishes.

“The right to control his social and sexual contacts and relationships are his and his alone,” Judge Jacqueline Jackson told Morris’ biological aunt and new legal conservator, Monica Mukai of San Juan Capistrano, who beseeched the judge to hold off on visits for now.

“Only Ryan holds consent. It’s not a joint right, not given to you, you do not share that right. Only Ryan has that right, under the orders that I’m holding,” the judge said.

Identical twins Ronald Moore, at left and Ryan Morris, embrace after seeing each for first time in 13 years during a July 2015 court hearing. (Photo courtesy of Monica Mukai)

Mukai and Morris’s biological family have long had “grave concerns” that Morris is a victim of sexual abuse and dependent-adult abuse. Mukai and the judge did some verbal sparring, but the outcome was not in doubt.

The judge was mindful, however, of the “abusive behavior” that removed Morris’ husband, Sean Spicer, as Morris’ legal guardian in 2019.

‘Misread’?

“The lines between spouse and conservator have been blurred to such an extent that it is no longer in Ryan’s best interest to have Sean in the role of conservator,” a judge wrote back then. “This is evidenced by numerous instances of abusive behavior.”

That includes Spicer, a man of regular intelligence, threatening to send Morris back to his adoptive mother when he misbehaved, threatening to remove his wedding ring and end the marriage, threatening to send Morris for emergency mental health treatment, punishing Morris by restricting visits with his biological family and taking his phone away to prevent contact with them. Morris had bouts of violence, even fighting with Spicer himself.

Morris and Spicer will indeed get to visit, the judge said, but those visits will be supervised. Spicer will pay for the supervision.

Jack Osborn, the publicly appointed attorney charged with representing Morris’ wishes, defended Spicer. The bio family refers to Spicer as a “court-adjudicated abuser” in court filings, but Osborn said that was a “misread” of the 2019 ruling that removed Spicer as conservator.

“The court did say there were certain acts that were abusive,” Osborn said, “but the real issue was that Mr. Spicer was unable to separate his role as conservator and as spouse.” Spicer made some “wrong choices,” Osborn said, including convincing Morris that he was in a battle with his aunt, Mukai, that they had to win. But that baked-in conflict is gone now that Mukai is conservator, and, simply put, Morris wants to see Spicer.

We’ll leave the parsing of the difference between “people who exhibit abusive behavior” and “abusers” to the lawyers, but Mukai worries. She understands that Osborn’s job is to represent Morris’ wishes — but it’s also to make sure Morris is safe, she told the court. As his conservator, that’s her job, too. Morris is easily led and often flip-flops on what he wants, and Mukai feared that his progress could be jeopardized by visits with Spicer right now.

Unaddressed was the elephant in the room: Can Morris legally consent to marriage? In a report for the court, a psychologist concluded that Morris did not have that capacity, “based on his concrete thinking and his limited understanding of a mutual nature of a relationship creating expectations between adults.” His adoptive mother — the one currently facing manslaughter and abuse charges — told Morris he could get a cell phone if he got married, the report said. Video of the ceremony shows that Morris mistook his wedding for a baptism.

That issue, though, was not before this court, the judge said.

Identical twins Ryan and Ronald Moore about age 7. They liked to watch the trains together in San Clemente, (Photo courtesy of Monica Mazzei)

Back home

In a longed-for victory for the family, Morris’ conservatorship case will be transferred from Riverside — where his adoptive mother moved to escape “persecution” from Orange County officials who accused her of having Munchausen by proxy (a behavior disorder in which caretakers exaggerate children’s health problems and subject them to unnecessary or inappropriate medical treatment) — and back home to Orange County, where this all began.

That will mean a fresh start for Morris, Mukai said.

Ryan Morris and his identical twin brother Ronald Moore were swept into state custody shortly after their birth in O.C. in 1994, due to their parents’ history of mental illness. Moore emerged healthy; Morris’ diagnoses included cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, behavior disorder, epilepsy and intellectual disability. Their grandmother sought custody of both boys, but got only Moore, the healthy twin. Morris remained in foster care because of his many special needs, which social workers said were beyond his grandmother’s ability to address.

Morris’ foster mother, Michelle Morris-Kerin, ran a home for the severely disabled. A former social worker, she wanted to adopt the boy. The biological family vehemently objected, but the adoption was approved by the court anyway. Morris-Kerin soon cut off all communication with her new son’s biological family.

Spicer was working in Morris-Kerin’s foster home for severely disabled children in Riverside County when he met Morris. Their wedding was held in Morris-Kerin’s backyard.

Transferring the case to Orange County will take time. There are hiccups getting all the paperwork transferred from the Riverside Public Guardian’s office to Mukai, and with getting services once provided by the Inland Regional Center picked up by the Regional Center of Orange County (quasi-governmental agencies that distribute state funding for the disabled). Mukai has been paying for all that out-of-pocket since she was appointed conservator in May, she said.

But she’s enormously pleased with Morris’ progress since he moved into her bungalow on historic Los Rios Street in San Juan Capistrano. He is having fewer and fewer outbursts, has started classes at Saddleback College — adaptive yoga, core strengthening and conditioning, community skills, a reading lab — attends the Happening Club in San Clemente and recently went with her to Mammoth for a disabled sports program that had him zooming around on a three-wheeled bike.

“No more group homes,” she said he told her.

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