June 19, 2024 11:13 AM UTC

At Least She's Not Your Bag-Watering Legislator

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• by: Colorado Pols

In another edition of one of our longest-running features (“At Least They’re Not Your Legislator”), we take you to Vermont, where a Republican lawmaker named Mary Morrissey has publicly apologized for repeatedly dumping water onto a Democratic colleague’s personal items over the course of five months.

As Boston.com reports:

A Republican lawmaker publicly apologized to a Democratic colleague before the Vermont House of Representatives after she was caught on video pouring water into his bag multiple times over the course of five months.

“I am truly ashamed of my actions,” Representative Mary Morrissey, who serves Bennington, Vt., said at a House veto session Monday.

Videos of Morrissey pouring cups of water into a personal bag belonging to Representative Jim Carroll, who also represents Bennington, were first acquired by Seven Days. The news outlet obtained the videos via a public records request after Carroll mounted a camera above where he hung his bag to find a culprit for the frequent soakings his belongings were getting.

Here’s that video, which doesn’t leave much doubt as to the perpetrator:

The news site Seven Days explains the “sting” operation that uncovered the culprit:

Carroll initially told his committee chair, Rep. Mike Marcotte (R-Coventry), about his stuff getting soaked and asked for help figuring out how it was happening. After ruling out other explanations, Carroll concluded he was being targeted. So he conducted a one-man Statehouse sting operation.

He installed a small $23 spy camera in the hallway pointed at the coatrack outside his committee room. He took the video evidence to House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), who confronted Morrissey about it…

…Morrissey initially denied responsibility, Carroll said, but in a follow-up meeting where Carroll was present, she apologized to him.

“It was a very uncomfortable meeting,” Carroll recalled. [Pols emphasis]

That’s probably an understatement.

The story has since been picked up by The Associated Press, which adds that Morrissey seemed to target Carroll after the latter had returned from rehab related to a DUI arrest:

Carroll told The Associated Press that the tote bag he hangs in a hallway at the Statehouse was soaked a couple of times per week in January and February. Then, after he was charged with driving under the influence in February and returned from rehab, his bag was soaked almost daily, he said.

“It was relentless,” Carroll said, adding that he was fairly confident it was Morrissey, who he said often mistreated him.

Morrissey has repeatedly refused requests for comment from multiple media outlets, including the AP.

It has often been said that state legislatures are a lot like high school because there are a relatively-small number of people working together in close proximity for months at a time. In this case, the example is more like an elementary school classroom.