Longtime trial lawyer John Morgan, who founded the Morgan & Morgan firm advertised on so many TV commercials, is close to quitting the Florida trial bar's lobbying group because of its admitted involvement in the recent distribution of a racially charged campaign flier.
But after urging from Morgan & Morgan attorney and black caucus member Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, Morgan told the Herald/Times he has agreed to hold off his decision about membership in the Florida Justice Association until the conclusion of an investigation being conducted by former Supreme Court justice Gerald Kogan.
The mailer, which included a tear-off absentee ballot request form, did not claim affiliation with any candidate. But it included images of the Black Panthers, President Barack Obama, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam and black marchers holding an ACORN banner — and a caption warning Republican voters of "violence and intimidation at the voting booth."
"The key for me is, did anyone in our organization see that piece before it went out? If they did they should have been raising holy hell, they should have called a press conference to denounce it," said Morgan, who lives in Orlando. "I want to know, did someone in our organization, in the fever to win, give up all that we stand for?"
"If that's the case, I'm out," said Morgan, a member of the trial bar group since 1983. "And I'll tell you, I am predisposed to leave right now."
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