NAME THAT PARTY: Morrissey indicted for sex crimes against a minor
7/1/2014
A special grand jury charged Monday that Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico, had sex with a minor and solicited pornographic images of the 17-year-old law office receptionist.
Morrissey, 56, was booked Monday evening at the Henrico County jail and released on a $50,000 bond. He was expected to make an initial appearance in Henrico County Circuit Court this morning.
Five indictments against Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico, add to a long political and legal career marked by controversy, sanctions and, n…
The charges — four felonies and a misdemeanor that together carry up to 41 years in prison — represent a new threat not only to Morrissey’s freedom but a renewed attack on his personal conduct and his suitability to practice law in Virginia.
Those matters are not likely to be resolved until Morrissey is tried by a special prosecutor, Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney William Neely, who described him more than three years ago as a man who “completely lacks any moral compass,” is dismissive of the truth and who utilizes “notoriously unethical practices.”
Morrissey, a high-profile defense lawyer and former Richmond commonwealth’s attorney, has generated controversy for decades, perhaps most notably with a December 1991 courthouse fistfight with lawyer David P. Baugh. Morrissey’s law license was revoked in 2001 for unethical conduct; it was reinstated in 2012.
Morrissey and lawyers on his behalf over the past few months have repeatedly claimed that nothing illegal occurred between the former receptionist in Morrissey’s law office and the delegate who has served in the General Assembly since 2008 representing Charles City County and portions of Henrico and Richmond.
But the indictments Monday, which followed an investigation that began in August last year and which was the subject of at least four special grand jury meetings that began in May, spell out troubling allegations of sexual encounters with a teenager and a subsequent exchange of a pornographic image, which allegedly was solicited by Morrissey and later distributed to a third party.
Morrissey had claimed in the past that the alleged victim falsified information about her age, saying she was 22 years old, when the young woman joined his law practice. She is now 18.
The matter came to light in August when the young woman’s father called police, fearful that his daughter was at Morrissey’s home near Virginia Center Commons late at night and was possibly in a relationship with Morrissey, who is unmarried and the father of three children, one of them now an adult.
“It was clear to me that the victim and her mother had been less than cooperative with the police investigation and had given conflicting and contradictory statements to police,” Neely wrote in a news release Monday.
The indictments issued Monday charge that Morrissey from Aug. 20 through 23 “did knowingly and with lascivious intent, sexually abuse” the teenager while maintaining a custodial relationship.
“He had sex with her twice in his law office and texted someone about it,” Neely said in a brief news conference Monday.
Another felony charge alleges that Morrissey used a “communication system … for the purpose of soliciting with lascivious intent, a person the accused knew or had reason to believe was a child” between 15 and 18 years of age.
Other felony charges allege Morrissey possessed a sexually explicit image of the victim, “a child under 18 years of age,” and distributed the image to another person.
The misdemeanor charge alleges Morrissey contributed to the delinquency of a minor.
Neely also released a so-called bill of particulars that provides previously unreleased information about the father’s concerns and subsequent police involvement around 11 p.m. on Aug. 23 last year.
It states that Morrissey is “alleged to have stalled the police for several minutes before delivering (the victim) to the police officers.” The 17-year-old had begun work as a receptionist at Morrissey’s office Aug. 5.
And while Morrisey advocates have argued that Morrissey thought the young woman was 22, based on an application, “further evidence establishes that the law firm staff and the defendant soon thereafter” became aware of the victim’s true age and well before the indictable offenses allegedly occurred.
On the night of Aug. 20, Morrissey “engaged in repeated consensual acts of sexual intercourse with (the victim) at his law offices,” according to Neely. Both Morrissey and the victim “sent out nearly simultaneous text messages to their respective friends confirming this sexual encounter” the next day, Neely wrote, claiming as well that evidence also will show that Morrissey the next day sought a nude photograph of the victim “to help him fantasize about their next encounter.”
Neely said the victim has denied a relationship but has given “three significantly different and contradictory statements to law enforcement concerning the acts and their relationship.”
Neely also attacked claims that the cellphones of Morrissey and the minor may have been hacked and text messages planted. He said there is no evidence to substantiate the claims.
The victim left Morrissey’s employment at the end of August but Morrissey gave her use of the firm’s Lexus and he recently “helped her purchase a new car.” The two shared a night together in Norfolk on or about Oct. 22 last year and they have been seen together socially as recently as May of this year, Neely said in the bill of particulars.
“Accordingly, it appears to the Commonwealth that (the victim) remains romantically under the influence of the defendant,” according to the bill of particulars.
Morrissey attorney Anthony Troy had a far different explanation last year:
“The young lady at the center of this matter, her mother and her grandmother have all stated … in unequivocal terms, that no sexual activity took place,” Troy said, noting that the three described Morrissey as a “consummate gentleman.”
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