Virginia state legislator accused of underage relationship

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This story involving Delegate Joe Morrissey, a Democrat from Henrico, VA, is trending online because he read an obscene text message from his alleged victim on live TV. And Morrissey is claiming to be falsely accused:

Charged Monday by a special grand jury with four felonies and a misdemeanor that could land him in prison for up to 41 years if he is convicted, Morrissey said he wanted to address the charges now instead of waiting to do so at trial. He declared that “there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell” that he will resign his House of Delegates seat over the allegations.

Glancing at a sheaf of papers with handwritten notes, the 56-year-old delegate and veteran defense attorney named names, belittled prosecution evidence and said expert testimony will reveal the alleged crimes as the work of a jealous woman, 24, whose advances were turned away by Morrissey’s alleged teenage lover, now 18.

The jilted woman, Morrissey said, hacked into cellphones where false evidence was planted, including a nude torso image of the receptionist that is the foundation of some of the charges.

In the hot sun in front of the Henrico County courts complex, Morrissey said one of the nation’s top experts in detecting tampered communications devices has found that Morrissey’s cellphone and that of the former receptionist did not originally contain the illegal material.

Last year, Morrissey made headlines for displaying an AK-47 on the floor of the Virginia House of Delegates during debate about a gun control bill. And he was disbarred in 2003 but reinstated in 2011.

Since the incident occurred when the woman was 17, and the age of consent in VA in 18, Morrissey is facing criminal charges. If this happened in DC or West Virginia or Maryland where the age of consent is 16, Morrissey would've faced charges for the photos but not the sex.

But in any case, Morrissey is all sorts of messed up and has to resign.