When private lives go public. The Morrissey saga hits social media.
RICHMOND, Va. — The as soon as very public relationship between Virginia State Senator Joe Morrissey (D – sixteenth District) and Myrna Morrissey re-entered the neighborhood’s collective dialog Friday after Myrna Morrissey, shared a sequence of social media posts she titled “The Greatest Mistake of My Life.”
Myrna Morrissey, 26, mentioned the couple was going via a divorce.
Within the posts, she shared particulars about her relationship along with her husband Joe Morrissey, and details about his alleged relationships with others. These posts garnered hundreds of likes and feedback and even spawned a GoFundMe to assist cowl her potential authorized bills.
In response, Joe Morrissey, 65, launched a press release that indicated he’d beforehand known as the police to research the alleged abuse of one of many couple’s three youngsters.
Chesterfield Police confirmed it acquired a report of “alleged abuse relating to a baby who might probably have been assaulted by an offender recognized to him.”
The assertion, which didn’t embody names, indicated an investigation into the matter was, “in its preliminary phases.”
Joe Morrissey is a politician and subsequently a public determine.
However given the delicate nature of this example and the affect it’s going to have on the kids, WTVR CBS 6 plans to cowl newsworthy updates as soon as extra info is obtained via investigators or courtroom paperwork and never via social media posts and statements making accusations.
The backstory, to this explicit Morrissey story, began in 2013 when allegations first surfaced that Joe Morrissey, then in his mid-50s, was concerned in a sexual relationship with Myrna, his then 17-year-old legislation workplace worker.
A Particular Grand Jury indicted Morrissey in 2014 on 5 costs together with:
- Supervisory indecent liberties with a minor
- Digital solicitation of a minor
- Possession of kid pornography
- Distribution of kid pornography
- Contributing to the delinquency of a minor
An investigation into Morrissey was launched in August 2013, based on the indictment, after Myrna’s father contacted the police.
It additionally acknowledged whereas the sufferer (Myrna) initially lied about her age as a way to work at Morrissey’s legislation workplace, Morrissey shortly found she was really underneath 18.
In December 2014, Morrissey entered an Alford plea in Henrico Courtroom on costs of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
By getting into an Alford plea, Morrissey didn’t admit he broke the legislation however did admit there was sufficient proof to convict him.
Morrissey resigned his Home of Delegates seat after he his conviction and received reelection as an Impartial in a particular election a month later in January 2015.
He spent the subsequent two months working on the Common Meeting through the day however served jail time at night time as a part of a work-release sentence.
In March 2015, Morrissey resigned his seat within the Home of Delegates to run for the Virginia State Senate however did not qualify for the Democratic main poll.
Additionally in March 2015, Myrna, then 19, gave beginning to a child boy.
Two months later, Joe Morrissey appeared on a Richmond radio present and proclaimed he was the kid’s father.
Joe and Myrna married in June 2016.
Later that yr, Morrissey was the obvious frontrunner within the 2016 Richmond mayor’s race till a authorized shopper accused him of constructing undesirable sexual advances and sending her lewd textual content messages. Morrissey misplaced that race.
In 2019, Morrissey defeated Democratic Sen. Rosalyn Dance in a main election and went on to win the final election for the Virginia State Senate.
In January 2022, in considered one of his final acts in workplace, Governor Ralph Northam (D – Virginia) pardoned Morrissey for the 2014 misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor cost that got here out of Morrissey’s relationship with Myrna.
Steve Helber/AP
Myrna’s father spoke out in opposition to Northam’s resolution.
“The actions of Governor Northam are deplorable and downright despicable,” Myrna’s father Coleman Pleasure mentioned in a press release when he realized concerning the pardon. “As a pediatrician who cares for kids and likewise a father of a daughter himself, his resolution right now speaks volumes to the truth that he has no ethical compass; He can’t be trusted to look after our youngsters or run for any public workplace sooner or later.”
In December 2022, Morrissey misplaced a bid to turn into the Democratic candidate to run in a February particular election for the 4th Congressional District seat left vacant because of the loss of life of Congressman Donald McEachin weeks after the November Election. He’s eligible for re-election to the Virginia State Senate in 2024.
Previous to holding state places of work, Morrissey served as Richmond Commonwealth’s Lawyer within the early Nineteen Nineties earlier than opening his personal authorized follow.
Morrissey has been disbarred greater than as soon as by the Virginia State Bar.
It is a growing story, so anybody with extra info can e mail newstips@wtvr.com to ship a tip.
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