Joe Morrissey

Early life and education

Morrissey, the son of William F. and Jean Morrissey, is a descendant of John "Old Smoke" Morrissey, a 19th-century U.S. Congressman and one-time bare-knuckle boxer. He and his five siblings grew up in Annandale.

Morrissey received a B.A. in economics at the University of Virginia in 1979, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law School in 1982. He taught government as a high school teacher, and was in private practice as an attorney from 1993-2000.

He was a lecturer of Law at Portobello College in Ireland from 2001–02; taught in the law school at the Dublin Institute of Technology for two years (2001–03), and in Australia at the University of Adelaide and the University of Western Sydney in 2003 until he was fired for failing to disclose the fact he had been disbarred.

The New South Wales Bar Association on April 26, 2006 found Morrissey was "not a fit and proper person to be admitted as a legal practitioner".

Morrissey earned a master of laws degree with honors at Trinity College, Dublin in 2003.

Gun on the floor

Morrissey attracted national attention in January 2013, when during a debate on gun control he pulled an unloaded AK-47 from under his desk and flourished it on the floor of the House of Delegates, after a Republican-controlled subcommittee had killed a bill of his that would have tightened gun controls in the commonwealth on weapons such as AK-47s. He announced, "A lot of people don't know that in many locations in the commonwealth, you can take this gun, you can walk in the middle of Main Street loaded and not be in violation of the law."

Disbarment and law license revocation

As an attorney, Morrissey was cited for contempt of court ten times and was jailed or arrested five times.

On December 21, 2001, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Morrissey was disbarred and on April 25, 2003, his license to practice law was revoked by the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board.

"Frequent episodes of unethical, contumacious, or otherwise inappropriate conduct mar Joseph D. Morrissey's career as prosecutor and private defense attorney," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit noted in September 2002. The court said, "Evidence … demonstrates Morrissey's 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 December 16, 2011, the Supreme Court of Virginia approved a petition for his reinstatement to the bar. However, Morrissey remains ineligible to practice in the federal court.

Sex crimes conviction

In August 2013, Morrissey was found by police to be in his home in Henrico County with a 17-year-old girl, who was an employee of his law office. Morrissey, the girl, and her mother, denied any impropriety, but subsequently, a Henrico County court convened a grand jury to investigate a possible improper sexual relationship between Morrissey and the girl. On June 30, 2014, Morrissey was indicted on felony charges of indecent liberties with a minor, possession and distribution of child pornography, and electronic solicitation of a minor, in addition to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, for which conviction he served three months of a 12-month sentence. After being convicted, Morrissey resigned as a delegate at the Virginia House.

According to statements from the prosecutor in court documents, Morrissey had sex with the girl multiple times in his law office in August 2013, and possessed a nude photograph of the girl, which he also sent to a friend. Morrissey allegedly continued the relationship with the girl after she left his law office in August 2013, and the two allegedly shared a hotel room overnight in October 2013.

Morrissey denied the charges, saying the girl came to him for advice about family problems and was being abused by her father, and that the special prosecutor was out to get him because of a personal vendetta. Morrissey said he rejected a plea bargain for a single misdemeanor in December 2013. He vowed to fight the charges in court, declaring that he would be vindicated, and rejected calls to resign his House seat.

Morrissey's case made national headlines in July 2014 when he used an obscenity on live television while reading a text message he claimed was planted on his phone by hackers. He entered into a plea agreement in which he made an Alford plea to one misdemeanor charge and received an active jail sentence. News reports indicated that Morrissey would be eligible to attend sessions of the legislature on work release.

Leading members of the Virginia Democratic Party, including Governor Terry McAuliffe called for Morrissey to resign his seat. Morrissey resigned his seat on December 18, 2014, but ran in the special election to fill the resulting vacancy. On January 13, 2015, while serving a six-month jail sentence, he won that election to reclaim his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

William Neely, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate the Morrissey case, secured new felony indictments January 21, 2015 against Morrissey for perjury and for presenting forged documents during his sentencing hearing.

Bids for higher office

In March 2015 Morrissey was disqualified from the House of Delegates after filing to run for a state Senate seat outside of his district. He dropped out of that race in September, allowing incumbent Rosalyn Dance (D) to win re-election without active opposition. In 2016 he began a campaign for mayor of Richmond, which he did not win, but secured 21% of the vote.

Personal life

Morrissey married Myrna Pride on June 11, 2016 in Varina, Virginia. It is his first marriage but he has fathered a total of five children by four different women (including his current wife).

Morrissey initially denied paternity of his son, who was born in March 2015, to his then law office intern, Myrna Pride, who was 17 at the time of the internship. On May 20, 2015, he confirmed paternity of the boy.

Although Morrissey admitted having sexual relationships with Pride, then 17 years old, in a plea agreement following a conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, both continue to maintain that no sexual activity occurred before she was of legal age.

Raised as a Catholic, Morrissey worships at New Kingdom Christian Ministry in Henrico County, a Baptist church.