PROSECUTOR BURNED POT, NEIGHBOR SAYS

SPRINGFIELD - A neighbor of Robertson County prosecutor Dent Morriss, who
is being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and accused
of mishandling evidence, says he can back up Morriss' claim that he
destroyed marijuana in a brush fire.

Jan Camplin, a retired U.S. Army colonel, said he and his wife were
visiting Morriss and his wife, Phyllis, at their Kentucky Lake home when
the prosecutor told him he had some evidence he needed to get rid of for
the court.

"I asked what it was, and he told me it was marijuana. I told him I'd never
seen any before, and he showed it to me before throwing it on the fire,"
Camplin said.

"It really wasn't a big deal."

But it became a big deal for Morriss, when a routine audit at the
Springfield Police Department led to the TBI investigation.

Morriss, who has prosecuted in Robertson County since 1988, admits he used
bad judgment last April when he took home an ounce of marijuana following a
trial in which the defendant had been found not guilty.

Morriss said the officer involved in the case had left the courthouse, so
he took the marijuana from the Circuit Court clerk and burned it in a brush
fire at his lake home in Kentucky.

"I welcome the investigation. I used bad judgment," Morriss said Friday.

Morriss' boss, District Attorney General John Carney, says Morriss knows he
should not have taken the marijuana with him.

Carney said he has given Morriss a stern oral reprimand.

"What he should have done was left the evidence with the clerk until the
next day, when a judge could have ordered it to be destroyed," Carney said.

The incident came to light earlier this month during a routine audit at the
Springfield Police Department, Carney said.

When Carney learned of the incident from the TBI, he asked for a full
investigation and called for a special prosecutor to replace him on the case.

Bill Whitsell, district attorney general of Rutherford County, has been
named as special prosecutor.

Carney pointed out that this was not a case of someone "slipping into the
files and taking evidence. Morriss' wife, who is an attorney, knew he had
it. The public defender knew he had it."