WASHINGTON — Former Virginia Delegate Joe Morrissey served three months in jail in a case involving his contact with an underage girl from his law office, and he could be heading back to court on perjury charges.
The special prosecutor in the case — Theophani Stamos, the commonwealth’s attorney for Arlington County — is appealing the plea deal that reduced Morrissey’s felony charges to a misdemeanor. Felony charges could have put him in prison for decades, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
Before the plea deal, Morrissey was accused of presenting a judge in the case with a forged document in order to help get his plea deal, as well as persuading the teen’s mother, Deidre Warren, to swear that the document was authentic.
The document purported to show that a meeting between Morrissey and the teenager were sparked by her discovery that a fund supposedly set up by her father for the girl’s education had no money in it. Minutes after the plea deal was finalized, the father said he had no involvement with any such account.
The judge ruled that the presentation of the supposedly forged documents was covered under a provision of the plea deal that absolved Morrissey of any criminal actions before the deal. Stamos’ appeal claims that the state couldn’t have known about the supposed forgery at Morrissey’s sentencing.
Warren will head to court next month to face the same felony charges that Morrissey was able to walk away from — perjury and forgery.
In March, the teenage girl gave birth and Morrissey was by her side during the delivery. Morrissey gave a local television a picture of himself with the baby and the teenage mother, but has not claimed to be the father.
