Warren Man Pleads Innocent To Charge He Murdered Chiropracter

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI—Owen Morris appeared in Providence/ Bristol County Superior Court on Wednesday for his arraignment in the Clive Bridgham murder trial. Bridgham, a chiropractor with a practice in Barrington, was found inside his Pleasant Street, East Providence home around Jan. 10, police said. A grand jury indicted Morris, who had been one of the chiropracter's patients, on July 11.

Morris, 21, played Lacrosse at The Wheeler School on Providence's East Side and also at the University of Rhode Island, where he enrolled but did not graduate.

Police said he was arrested Monday, Jan. 22 but initially did not release his name or details about the death. The Providence Journal, however, reported the doctor had been stabbed and said Morris was a dean's list student at the University of Rhode Island.

Earlier, URI confirmed Morris started college in 2013 but did not graduate. He took a leave of absence in February 2017 and formally withdrew from the school in September. According to sports records, Morris played one game of Lacrosse for the varsity and was an attackman.SubscribeThe school could not confirm if he suffered a sports injury and said the coaching staff is new and none of them knew Morris. Wheeler did not return calls asking for comment. The Journal picked Morris for its second All-State LAX team in 2013. Morris was listed at 6'2" and 170 pounds on the Men's College Lacrosse Association website. According to his Facebook page, he managed a sporting goods store, Lacrosse Shoot LLC, on Child Street in Warren. The site indicates Morris designed Lacrosse attack stick handles made from bamboo.

Morris has been held in prison ever since his arrest. However, he has had bail hearings on Jan. 30, Feb. 13. Feb. 27, March 29 and May 1 (which was continued to May 2), according to the Rhode Island Judicial Portal. He is represented by Attorney John E. MacDonald.

His family has requested privacy. Both parents are prominent. Morris's father, Spencer Morris, is an apple farmer, according to an Internet search, and a past president of the Warren Preservation Society. His mother, Allison Newsome, is a sculptor. Her sculptures of lions adorn the Audrain Automobile Museum on Newport's Bellevue Avenue, and she has been active with the Newport Art Museum.

Dr. Bridgham's body was found in his home, which was originally reported as 170 Pleasant St., Riverside. However, land evidence records indicate he owned property at 1 Bridgham Court, which is off Pleasant Street and near Morra Way. The property is connected to the Bridgham Farm, which is on the National Register. According to Wikipedia, Dr. Bridgham was descended from the family that originally owned the historic property. It was deeded to them by King George III. An ancestor, Samuel Willard Bridgham, was the first mayor of Providence. Another ancestor was an eighteenth-century president of Harvard University.
SubscribeAccording to online records, he was the Chiropractic Physician of the Year in 2015. In 2016, he was chosen to attend the Olympic games in Rio for his sports-medicine expertise. He was director of the Barrington Chiropractic & Sports Medicine Clinic.

Police have not revealed the motive for the murder yet but called the slaying "brutal."

East Providence police Lt. Raymond Blinn said earlier,"The doctor's life had many chapters." In 2003, the state health board put him on probation for three years. According to the consent order, he treated someone suffering from depression after the death of a sibling and engaged in sexual conduct with the client. He also counseled the client in matters on which he had no training, according to the order.

He surrendered his license last fall voluntarily after a 19-year-old patient complained he had violated the physician-patient relationship. East Providence police have confirmed Morris is the same person who made the complaint.

A Patch contributor wrote a complimentary piece about Dr. Bridgham in 2011.

File Photo Caption: Owen Morris appears in district court in Providence, R.I. on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, to face a first-degree murder charge. Credit: Steve Szydlowski/Providence Journal via AP, Pool