1. Joseph Dee Morrissey was born on September 23,1957 and is an American politician, businessman, and former lawyer who won election to both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly from districts including Richmond or surrounding Henrico County, Virginia under various political affiliations.
Joe Morrissey represented Virginia's 16th Senate district from 2020 to 2024, having been elected during the 2019 election.
Joe Morrissey represented much of southern Richmond, as well as all of the cities of Petersburg and Hopewell and portions of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties.
Joe Morrissey lost the 2023 Democratic primary for his district.
Joe Morrissey represented the 74th House district, made up of Charles City County and parts of Henrico and Prince George counties, all of the city of Hopewell and part of the city of Richmond.
Joe Morrissey earned a master of laws degree with honors at Trinity College, Dublin in 2003.
Joe Morrissey had a private legal practice from 1993 to 2000.
Joe Morrissey was a lecturer of law at Portobello College in Ireland from 2001 to 2002, and taught in the law school at the Dublin Institute of Technology for two years 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 Joe Morrissey was "not a fit and proper person to be admitted as a legal practitioner".
Joe Morrissey was indicted and acquitted of five bribery, perjury, and misuse of public funds charges as commonwealth's attorney, and was suspended and reinstated to the post a number of times.
Records from the Virginia State Bar indicate that Joe Morrissey received a public reprimand in March 1992, and had his law license suspended twice: once in December 1993 and then again in December 1999.
On December 21,2001, Joe Morrissey was disbarred in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and on April 25,2003, his license to practice law was revoked by the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board.
Joe Morrissey appealed the federal disbarment to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Joe Morrissey was thus found to have violated rules that require a lawyer to ensure that anyone under his or her supervision follow ethics rules.
The panel noted that Joe Morrissey had not informed his client that someone else would be present, itself a violation of the Bar's rules.
Joe Morrissey applied to the Virginia Supreme Court on June 13,2018, for a stay of his revocation as he perfected an appeal to the Richmond Circuit Court's ruling.
Joe Morrissey first ran for the Virginia House of Delegates in 1981, during the summer before his third year of law school, hoping to gain one of three seats in the newly-drawn 51st district, based in Fairfax County.
Joe Morrissey placed fifth in a field of seven candidates, finishing behind incumbent delegates Robert E Harris, Jim Dillard, and Larry Pratt, as well as former delegate Robert L Thoburn.
Joe Morrissey first won election to the House representing a Richmond-area district in November 2007.
Joe Morrissey won re-election to that part time position several times, but resigned that position due to legal troubles discussed below.
Joe 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 brandished 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.
On March 24,2015, Joe Morrissey was disqualified from the House of Delegates after filing to run for a state Senate seat outside of his district.
Joe Morrissey dropped out of that senate race in September 2015, allowing incumbent Rosalyn Dance to win reelection without active opposition.
In 2016, Joe Morrissey ran for mayor of Richmond as an Independent.
Joe Morrissey defeated independent candidate Waylin Ross in the general election held in November 2019.
In 2019, Joe Morrissey was elected to a seat on the Senate of Virginia, representing the 16th district.
In November 2020, Joe Morrissey was charged with three misdemeanor counts of violating state election laws; the charges related to the 2019 elections, in which Joe Morrissey was alleged to have entered a polling place in Virginia, given food to poll workers and voters, thanking them for supporting him, and inviting them to an election party thrown by his campaign.
Joe Morrissey's office said the charges were politically motivated, following Joe Morrissey endorsing Virginia Delegate Jay Jones for Virginia Attorney General, a challenger to incumbent Mark Herring.
In December 2022, Joe Morrissey ran to be the Democratic candidate in a special election for Virginia's 4th congressional district, triggered by the death of US representative Donald McEachin.
Joe Morrissey lost to state senator Jennifer McClellan in a firehouse primary.
Joe Morrissey married Myrna Pride in Varina, Virginia on June 11,2016, when she was 20 years old and Morissey was 59.
Joe Morrissey initially denied paternity of his son with Pride, who was born in March 2015 when Pride was 19.
In 2023, Pride filed for divorce claiming that Joe Morrissey had numerous affairs.
Joe Morrissey has three children with Pride, a son born circa 2015, a daughter, Bella, born circa 2016, and a son, Maverick, born circa 2018.
On June 30,2014, Joe 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.
Joe 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.
Joe 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.
Joe Morrissey said he rejected a plea bargain for a single misdemeanor in December 2013.
Joe Morrissey vowed to fight the charges in court, declaring that he would be vindicated, and rejected calls to resign his House seat.
Joe Morrissey again 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.
Joe Morrissey 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 Joe Morrissey would be eligible to attend sessions of the legislature on work release.
Joe Morrissey resigned his seat on December 18,2014, but ran in the special election to fill the resulting vacancy.
William Neely, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate the Joe Morrissey case, secured new felony indictments January 21,2015, against Joe Morrissey for perjury and for presenting forged documents during his sentencing hearing.