A new criminal investigation of Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, I-Henrico, is underway, according to search warrants and the state Supreme Court’s appointment of a judge to oversee the case.
Morrissey, 57, is cited as the defendant in an ongoing criminal investigation that lists four unnamed felonies and a new judge.
The case is an outgrowth of a months-long investigation of the delegate’s relationship with a then-17-year-old receptionist at his law office. That matter, which generated felony indictments that could have carried more than 40 years in prison, was ended Dec. 12 with an Alford plea to a single misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Under an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges there is evidence sufficient for a conviction.
Morrissey is serving out a six-month jail sentence in that case, attending General Assembly sessions each day before returning to Henrico Jail East in New Kent County at night.
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The new investigation is referred to in a state Supreme Court order Jan. 14. It appoints retired Alexandria Circuit Judge Alfred D. Swersky to preside over a felony investigation.
The order names Morrissey as the defendant and is part of an ongoing investigation of Morrissey and another lawyer, Sherri Thaxton, whose law offices were the targets of search warrants Jan. 12 — the night before Morrissey won a three-way race as an independent in the 74th House District.
A source close to Morrissey said documents pertaining to Morrissey’s get-out-the-vote strategy for the next day were among documents seized by Henrico County detectives.
The search warrants were authorized Jan. 10, a Saturday, by another retired circuit judge, William C. Andrews III of Hampton. Henrico detectives swarmed Morrissey’s Highland Springs office and that of Thaxton in the city Jan. 12.
Morrissey, a longtime Democrat who had resigned his House seat effective the day of the special election, was sworn in as an independent delegate the next day. That day — Jan. 14 — was the opening of the current session of the General Assembly.
Morrissey has served nearly half his sentence. Under the way in which jail time is computed in misdemeanor cases, an inmate gets one day of credit for each day served. Morrissey’s role as a delegate serves as his work release.
The new investigation, according to court documents, deals with allegedly fraudulent documents that were presented at Morrissey’s sentencing. The documents concern payments that allegedly were owed by Coleman Pride, the father of Myrna Pride. She is the young woman, now 18 and pregnant, who worked as Morrissey’s receptionist.
Myrna Pride has repeatedly and publicly denied having a sexual relationship with Morrissey but has declined to say who is the father of her unborn child. The Richmond Times-Dispatch generally does not publish the names of victims of sexual assault, but Pride and her family have made repeated public comments about the Morrissey case.
The payment documents are significant because it was Coleman Pride who first alerted Henrico police in August 2013 to his fears about a relationship between his daughter and the delegate. Morrissey’s defense team said Myrna Pride had been meeting with Morrissey at his home because of her discovery that thousands of dollars in college money was missing from a special account.
That account was documented in court papers from August 2006 filed in Chesterfield County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court allegedly showing that Coleman Pride was obligated to pay $50 a week toward two of his daughters.
At Morrissey’s plea hearing, however, Coleman Pride heard testimony about the payments and told detectives that he had never been ordered to make such payments.
Search warrants executed the night before the election allege violations of felony statutes dealing with “conspiracy to commit perjury” and uttering a forged document. The alleged juvenile court records were submitted to Henrico Circuit Court during the Dec. 12 plea hearing, but the search warrants allege that actual juvenile court records in Chesterfield do not contain the documents.
A key witness in the case is a mediator whose signature appears in some of the documents but not on the document dealing with the $50 payments.
It was not clear Tuesday if the special prosecutor who oversaw the original Morrissey investigation will serve in that capacity in the current investigation.
Swersky, the retired judge appointed to handle the new case, was a member of the three-judge panel in December 1999 that ordered Morrissey’s law license suspended for three years for violating disciplinary rules for lawyers.
The Virginia Supreme Court reinstated Morrissey’s license in April 2012 by a 4-3 vote.