Joe Morrissey
[12] He 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.However, the disbarment was affirmed in a September 2002 opinion which concluded "Frequent episodes of unethical, contumacious, or otherwise inappropriate conduct mar Joseph D. Morrissey's career as prosecutor and private defense attorney."The appellate 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."[17] On March 29, the panel considered charges stemming from Morrissey's representation of former Virginia governor Douglas Wilder and the United States National Slavery Museum in a tax matter.[19] That employee had passed the Bar Examination a short time before, but until formal swearing-in by the Virginia Supreme Court was ineligible to represent clients as an attorney.[21] On January 9, 2020, the Virginia Supreme Court adopted a rules change eliminating the legal ambiguity cited in Morrissey's last disbarment appeal.[23] 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.Positioning himself as an opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion, he entered the Republican Party primary after consulting with his former government professor, Larry Sabato.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.[39][40][41] In December 2022, 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.[54] 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.[55] Leading members of the Virginia Democratic Party, including Governor Terry McAuliffe, called for Morrissey to resign his seat.On January 13, 2015, while serving a six-month jail sentence and running as an Independent, he won that election to reclaim his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.[59] On January 15, 2022, in his last day in office, Governor Ralph Northam pardoned Morrissey for the misdemeanor conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the person who became his wife and mother of three of his children.