Jack Morgan, 69; judge who presided over 2004 Compton corruption trial

Jack W. Morgan, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who presided over the 2004 corruption trial of Compton’s mayor and city manager, has died. He was 69.

Morgan, a Republican appointed to the bench by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1994, died of prostate cancer Nov. 10 at his Rancho Palos Verdes home, said John J. Cheroske, supervising Superior Court judge at the Compton courthouse, where Morgan worked.

After former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley and former City Manager John Johnson were found guilty of misappropriating funds and misusing city-issued credit cards, Morgan ordered them to pay restitution and serve three years in state prison.

Bradley “did so much good, but he fundamentally abused his power,” Morgan said at the time of the sentencing, according to the Los Angeles Sentinel.

In another high-profile case, Morgan awarded $47,000 in back wages in 1997 to an illegal immigrant from Indonesia who said that a Carson couple exploited her when she worked for them as a live-in housekeeper for nearly three years.

Many of the criminal trials Morgan presided over involved gang activity.

“I have heard some pretty ugly cases, and they come one right after another,” he told the Los Angeles Daily Journal in 2004.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys portrayed Morgan as a judge who issued tough sentences and had a keen ability to recognize when lawyers were not being straight with him, the Daily Journal reported.

Jack Wallace Morgan was born May 4, 1937, in Inglewood. His father, Jack, was a salesman and builder, and his mother, Ava, was one of the first women in California to hold a general contractor’s license, Morgan told the Daily Journal.

At USC, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1959 and a law degree three years later.

By 1965, Morgan had become a partner in the Inglewood firm Cadoo & Tretheway, specializing in real estate law. He left in 1983 to start a firm with Cheroske and Robert J. Reamer in Torrance. Morgan and Cheroske were appointed to the Superior Court a year apart.

Morgan is survived by his wife, Judith, a former schoolteacher; and sons James and Jeffrey.

Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. today at SeaCoast Grace Church, 5100 Cerritos Ave., Cypress.

valerie.nelson@latimes.com