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By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First
The Vermont House Ethics Panel has apparently agreed to take no public action against longtime State Rep. Mary A. Morrissey, R-Bennington for dumping water into a tote bag of another local legislator at the Statehouse.
In a joint press statement issued Thursday, Rep. James T. Carroll, D-Bennington, owner of the tote bag, Rep. Morrissey and the Ethics Panel of the Vermont House of Representatives said they have met during the summer to clear the air between the two legislators.
Carroll later told the Bennington Banner there is more work to be done and he is leaving his legal options open.
Morrissey, reached by phone, said she was unable to comment because the process is considered confidential.
The press release noted the parties agreed to use a Restorative Justice process to deal with the complaint. Restorative Justice sessions in Vermont are held behind closed doors.
The Restorative Justice process is designed for impacted persons to summarize the harm they believe they have suffered and for persons who are at fault for such harm to take accountability, apologize, and make amends, the release said.
Morrissey, who has served in the legislature for 28 years, has offered multiple apologies to Carroll, including during a floor speech at a special veto override legislative session in June in Montpelier.
During the summer meetings Carroll said the intentional and repeated actions by Morrissey caused distress and disrupted his life over several months, according to the press release.
The House Ethics Panel said in the release it plans to monitor Morrissey’s compliance with her commitments to repair the harm she caused. It did not identify the commitments or offer any elaboration.
In addition, the five-member Ethics Panel said it will consider how to provide training to the 180-member body so individual legislators can learn from the situation and will be prepared to treat each other with greater respect and civility in the future.
Vermont legislators have been known to do pranks under the Golden Dome over the past decades and the Statehouse has been dubbed “The High School on the Hill.”
In the middle of the fight with Morrissey, Carroll found himself arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated while headed to work at the Statehouse about 8:30 a.m. Feb. 21.
Carroll, 62, has denied the criminal charge and the prosecution has agreed to drop the charge if he completes both a safe driving course and the Restorative Justice Program.
He has a status conference for his DUI charge on Sept. 30 a court spokesman said Thursday.
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Categories: State Government
People behaving badly… we used to called this ‘moronic behavior’ …and these are the people we trust to make our lives better?
Dead bodies piling up all over the State. Yet, these two are busy playing mind games and tangling up resources, time and energy to solve their petty, self-absorbed NPD, sociopathic tendencies. Clown show indeed.
“These two”? I see only one sociopath here.
One is a sociopath for playing childish, vandalistic pranks on a colleague and the victim of the wet handbag is a sociopath for participating in the demise of the State of Vermont by engaging in the damaging agenda of the party of majority…
Another massive scandal in Vermont that will be solved behind closed doors. How much more can the taxpayers take? The taxpayers demand that justice be restored. They will say we are sorry about being a drunk driver and soiling a tote. We will try to control all of our bad habits.
At the time Carroll got the DWI I believe he said he would not fight the charges. Then I believe he pled not guilty and demanded a public defender. Do you think he has any remorse for his action? A quick look at his voting record shows he has voted on every issue with the progressives, regardless of the issues. Looks like he votes the way he is TOLD to vote. Maybe that is why he may not face the DWI charges.
He is the perfect useful idiot. They make the whole story about water being poured into his bag (which is juvenile for sure) and he’s getting off a DUI charge.
This again is where the pigs are more equal than others. Us Vermont serfs, how would the law treat us? Perhaps not so kindly. We are truly living on Animal Farm, it was not a manual for American Governance, Lord help us.
How about all politicians just go home for good…
Do we really need “leaders?” What do they do but find never-ending ways to take more money from residents? If something is a good idea, people will fund it and organize it.
I mean, our town can’t even keep enough plow drivers. Professional services are closing up due to lack of employees. Store fronts are empty. But more people use SNAP benefits than ever. (I work as a PT cashier at a supermarket, so I see it.)
In its place of growth… no, wait… even sustainable economics, all we have is the hope of more well-to-do visitors in a state that runs on taxes and tourism more than anything else. There is no real productive economy here. Farms are dwindling and (luckily for Progressives) the rain is washing out whatever else we have left to profit from as a people with land that ought to sustain at minimum its own population.
What do we have here with about 400 thousand residents? If you chose to live here, or were born here and decided to stay, but you want NYC-style living, you can’t make 400 thousand people across a large area grant you that lifestyle.
The bewildering thing to me, coming from an over-populated state, is how can a body of politicians screw things up so friggen badly that they cannot keep something this simple, the second smallest populated state of the US, running just fine without them constantly over-burdening everyone with expenses from within their myriads of orgs and agencies? Unless the intention is to over-complicate something, a group of lawmakers would need to be utterly mental to do this to a region with so much natural abundance for good living.
Vermont Marxist will end up using this ethics panel for compliance, you can see the seeds have been planted and now the young sprouts of corruption are starting to blossom. Nothing to see here, don’t bother to inquire why we got a D- in ethics…/
Please go back to sleep, watch more tv, keep your face embedded in your “smart” phone…..and please stop asking questions, just believe and do as you are told!
And please remember to wear brown shirts and walk in sync!
Well, how about that, a secular reinvention of a community sacrament of Penance. As an aside, doesn’t representative Morrissey deserve some credit for her restraint. Considering the unrestrained Democratic majority’s abuse of the citizenry, one can only imagine the plethora of punishments that occurred to her and yet no clubs, firearms, tar or feathers were involved. A little water here and there…sincere acts of contrition…class act lady, your mother would surely be proud of the woman she raised…and your fellow citizens stand with you.