Joe Morrissey, a Democrat who was jailed for having sex with his 17-year-old secretary and lost his law license for “episodes of unethical, contumacious, or otherwise inappropriate conduct,” according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, has won a Senate seat in Virginia.
The Daily Wire reported:
The court ruled in that cast that Morrissey had a “15-year history of contempt citations, reprimands, fines, suspensions, and even incarcerations arising from unprofessional conduct mostly involving an uncontrollable temper, inappropriate responses to stress and dishonesty.
On Tuesday Morrissey was elected to a state senate seat winning close to 64 percent of the vote. Waylin Ross, an Independent, got 36 percent of the vote. No Republican was on the ballot.
The Daily Wire reported on Morrissey’s nefarious resumé in and outside of government:
Morrissey, now 61, was in his 50’s when he was accused of having sex with his 17-year-old secretary, to whom he is now married. He claimed he did nothing wrong, but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 2015 while admitting there was enough evidence to convict him. (This often happens to innocent and guilty defendants alike, they plead to a lesser crime to avoid worse consequences in front of a jury for a larger crime.) The girl and her mother also denied anything untoward was happening between the two, though he was initially indicted on charges of possessing and distributing child pornography (he had, according to prosecutors, a nude photograph of the girl and had sent it to a friend) and the electronic solicitation of a minor.
Morrissey had resigned as a legislator but won it back in a special election. He sailed to victory in a primary for state Senate earlier this year, defeating incumbent state Sen. Rosalyn Dance by 14 points.
Morrissey also ran a failed bid for Richmond mayor in 2016, according to the Daily Wire.
In 2015 Style Weekly interviewed Morrissey, who brought his girlfriend, at the time Myrna Warren, with him. She was pregnant with their second child after having their first child at 19.
The couple are now married and have three children.
Style Weekly reported on his legal problems and the relationship that led to some of them:
Warren, who then went by Myrna Pride, was a receptionist at Morrissey’s law firm when she was 17. Morrissey was accused of having sex with her when she was underage, a charge both of them deny.
In December, Morrissey entered an Alford plea in the case, denying guilt but acknowledging evidence against him. He received a six-month sentence that was reduced to a three-month work-release term. He served it while holding the 74th District seat in the House of Delegates, to which he was re-elected in January.
Morrissey seems carefree about his health in declaring that he and Warren eventually want to have four children together. He also has three daughters from other relationships, ages 3, 28 and 29.
WJLA reported that Morrissey will represent residents in “parts of Richmond, Chesterfield County, Petersburg, Hopewell, Prince George County, and Dinwiddie County.”
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