Search warrant authorized on home of former Colfax High coach accused of sexual abuse

Details of a search warrant on the home of former Colfax High School coach and teacher Belden "Jack" Morgan filed in court Tuesday include recorded phone conversations between Morgan and an alleged victim of sexual abuse, a list of electronic items seized from his Christian Valley home and statements from victims detailing the alleged abuse. The search warrant was dated Feb. 11, 2012 and executed by Placer County Superior Court Judge Frances Kearney. Morgan, who was arrested last Thursday on felony charges of continual sexual abuse, punishable by 15 years to life in prison, remains in custody at the Placer County Jail with bail set at $1.5 million. His first court appearance is scheduled for Wed. Feb. 22.Several video and digital cameras, memory cards and other data storage devices were collected by detectives from Morgan's home, along with computers, laptops, photographs and VHS tapes. It should be noted that Morgan was a computer science teacher at Colfax High School from 1998-2004.In the search warrant, Detective Michael Simmons included written transcripts of two recorded phone conversations between Morgan and an alleged victim, along with statements from victims and family members describing the alleged abuse. The statements from alleged victims and their family contained information about the alleged dates, locations and nature of the alleged sexual abuse. While the information is available to the public through court records, The Journal has chosen not to release these details at this time due to the graphic nature of the descriptions. Simmons said the alleged abuse was first reported to a Placer County deputy by one of the victims on Jan. 21, when the deputy also spoke with the victim's mother. Detectives began a follow-up investigation on Jan. 26 and interviewed two other alleged victims and two other people who do not claim to be a victims. On Feb. 6, a victim called Morgan while law enforcement was recording the conversation with a digital recorder. In the first conversation, which took place on Morgan's home phone, Morgan repeatedly asked the alleged victim to meet him somewhere else when the victim brought up the alleged sexual abuse against him. Morgan said he had company and asked the alleged victim to call him back on his cell phone. Minutes later the alleged victim called Morgan on his cell phone. They proceeded to have a 35 minute conversation. Morgan continued to ask the alleged victim to meet in person to talk when he brought up specific instances of alleged sexual abuse. At one point in the recording the alleged victim said he looked up to Morgan as a father figure. The transcript stated Morgan responded with the following:"I'm sorry I spoiled that. I really am. I am sorry because I really, that, that shouldn't have happened. Things shouldn't have, you know, I, we should have been just having a continuously good time and spend more time together," Morgan said. Morgan was arrested on Feb. 9. Detective Simmons asked in the search warrant to be able to remove the items from Morgan's home to study them incase systems were in place to erase the computer's data. Reach Sara Seyydin at saras@goldcountrymedia.com.