Twin Brothers, Ex-Orange County Deputies, Plead Guilty To Fraudulently Obtaining Military Leave
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) – Twin brothers and former Orange County Sheriff's deputies have pleaded guilty to submitting fake military orders in order to obtain time off without having to use their vacation days.
Taylor and Tyler Morgan, both 26, each pleaded guilty Tuesday to one federal misdemeanor count of unlawful possession of an authentication feature.
Both were sentenced in U.S. District Court to one year of probation. Tyler also received eight months of home detention, while Taylor received six months.
According to federal prosecutors, the two brothers were deputies and members of the Marine Corps Reserves at Camp Pendleton.
The two brothers were each given 30 vacation days per year from the sheriff's department, along with another 30 days of leave to fulfill their active-duty obligations with the Marine Corps.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, between June 2017 and November of 2019, Tyler submitted 24 fraudulent military orders to the sheriff's department, while Taylor submitted 25 fraudulent orders between May 2017 and January 2020.
The orders were submitted although neither had been ordered by the Marine Corps to fulfill any active-duty obligations during those periods, prosecutors said.
In most instances, they had been called for inactive duty training, for which they are not allowed to use military-leave compensation. The brothers did so in order to not have to use their pool of 30 vacation days, prosecutors said.
Furthermore, in one such case in July of 2019, Tyler took a trip to Las Vegas and spent a day at home playing video games.
In total, Taylor received 48 days of military leave for which he was not entitled, which came out to $14,000 in pay, while Tyler received 64 days of military leave, coming out to $32,400. Both men were ordered to pay those amounts in restitution.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Defense.
