FREEHOLD — A Monmouth County grand jury on Wednesday refused to indict a Brooklyn man on manslaughter charges that had been lodged against him in
the death of a Bass River man last year, the Prosecutor's Office said.
Alexander J. Franklin, 34, a tattoo artist with reputed gang affiliations, had been accused in the beating death of James Morrison, 25, on Jan. 14,
2007.
Morrison died of blunt force trauma after an altercation at Club Deep, an Asbury Park nightclub, where he was allegedly punched in the head and later
died of his injuries.
"A very thorough investigation was conducted at the time this crime occurred," Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Peter E. Warshaw said. "That
information was presented to the grand jury in a thorough and comprehensive manner, and the grand jury declined to return any indictments."
The grand jury's vote means the police charges against Franklin are now dismissed, prosecutors said.
Franklin was initially arrested three weeks after the fight. At the time, police said Morrison hit his head on concrete after being felled by a blow
to the head.
Morrison and his friends had allegedly been involved in an altercation inside the club over a T-shirt worn by one of Morrison's friends. Show
attendees said someone took offense that the shirt depicted a Confederate flag.
Prosecutors said Franklin was associated with the FSU gang — an acronym standing for Friends Stand United or two profanities followed by the word
"up." The group is reported to be responsible for driving neo-Nazi elements out of the Boston hard-core punk scene in the mid-1980s.
Warshaw said he could not comment further on the matter because of court rules that require grand jury proceedings to be kept secret.
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