Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090234
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"I never miss an opportunity to do a little campaigning," he said with a grin as he shook hands just before a deputy sheriff shooed him inside.
Richmond's chief prosecutor was on his way not to press charges, but to answer them. His alleged use of some decidedly unconventional campaign opportunities had prompted a grand jury to accuse Morrissey of perjury, accepting bribes and using public funds to help finance his re-election campaign.
The five-count indictment capped a bitter and bizarre campaign that ended with Morrissey's defeat in Tuesday's Democratic primary. The winner, former Morrissey assistant David Hicks, got about 64 percent of the vote in unofficial returns, apparently persuading voters to disregard Morrissey's charge that the indictment was politically motivated.
Republicans apparently will not oppose Hicks in November. Morrissey, 35, could be out of a job as soon as Thursday, lose his law license and go to prison.
Hicks, 32, who is black, won the primary with near-unanimous support from the city's white establishment. Morrissey, who is white, built his base in the black community with help from influential ministers and such political figures as state senator and former Mayor Henry L. Marsh III.
That alone would mark the election as unusual for Richmond, where black and white voters rarely cross racial lines at the polls. But the racial dynamic was overshadowed by the controversy over whether Morrissey had corrupted his office or been politically sucker-punched by one of Hicks' law partners.
Despite a tumultuous term, during which he's twice been found in contempt of court and has served five days in jail, Morrissey seemed well-positioned to win re-election until reports that he was being investigated broke in late May.
His legal troubles stem mainly from a plea bargain in a rape case last August. A lab analysis of semen found in the victim's panties established that she'd had sex with the defendant, Robert W. Molyneux III. But traces of a second man's semen in the panties contradicted the woman's insistence she had not had sexual relations for five weeks.
With the victim's agreement, Morrissey agreed to let Molyneux plead guilty to sexual battery, a misdemeanor, and pay $25,000 to the victim in damages.
But apparently unbeknownst to the victim, and to Circuit Judge Thomas N. Nance, the deal also included a second $25,000 payment, this one from Molyneux's family into a fund for distribution by Morrissey to churches and charities selected by the prosecutor.
The 46 beneficiaries included the Boy Scouts, Toys for Tots and the Ronald McDonald House, along with at least four churches or church programs whose ministers endorsed Morrissey.
The grand jury apparently concluded that the arrangement was a bribe.
The jury also charged the prosecutor with accepting a bribe last September from a woman identified as Claudette Gatlin. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has quoted unnamed sources as saying she made a $5,000 contribution to Morrissey's campaign in exchange for his help in seeking parole for her son, in prison on drug, larceny and contempt-of-court charges.
The Virginia Parole Board ultimately ordered the son, Richard Kenneth Rose, freed in April, the earliest date available to him.
Morrissey has not commented on the Gatlin case, but defended the Molyneux deal last month:
"I felt very strongly that the defendant in this case had an obligation to the community at large as well as to the victim," he said.
The payments were made over several months, apparently ending last December. Then, with about $7,500 of the money unspent, Molyneux's lawyer apparently had second thoughts about the propriety of the arrangement and cut off the tap.
That lawyer, James S. Yoffy, is a member of perhaps the city's most prominent criminal defense firm, Bremner, Baber & Janus. Hicks joined the firm last July.
As his challenge to Morrissey picked up steam this spring, Hicks concentrated on the prosecutor's past problems with contempt citations and the city's murder rate, among the nation's highest. But on May 22, less than three weeks before the primary, state police served Yoffy with a search warrant for his files on the Molyneux case and the story was leaked to reporters.
Morrissey, citing Yoffy's ties to Hicks and the timing of the investigation, immediately claimed he was the victim of a political vendetta. Judge Thomas V. Warren has scheduled a hearing for Thursday on a motion to dismiss the case because a grand juror worked as a Hicks campaign volunteer, and on special prosecutor James C. Clark's counterproposal that Warren remove Morrissey from office immediately.
by CNB