State senator's restraining order against estranged wife seeing their kids is extended

CHESTERFIELD — A judge has granted state Sen. Joe Morrissey's request to extend a protective order against his estranged wife and her boyfriend barring them from any contact with the couple's three children while the county investigates reports of abuse of one of the kids by the boyfriend.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Frank Rogers of Roanoke, who was called in after all Chesterfield JDR judges recused themselves, extended the order in court papers filed Tuesday and obtained by The Progress-Index. He also denied a request from Myrna Pride Morrissey for a similar order against her husband.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for 2 p.m. Jan. 27 in Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

Morrissey, 65, and Pride Morrissey, 26, became embroiled in a public battle last weekend when Pride Morrissey posted a series of messages on Instagram alleging numerous infidelities by Morrissey during their relationship and subsequent marriage. Morrissey countered by claiming she wrote the posts after he confronted her about her boyfriend striking their four-year-old with a belt as discipline.

From Friday night through the weekend, Pride Morrissey published 26 Instagram posts claiming that her husband repeatedly promised to end the alleged philandering but never stopped. She even threatened to share of video of him purported engaged in sex with a woman whose imprisoned husband he represented.

By Tuesday, though, Pride Morrissey had deleted all the posts on the advice of legal counsel. However, she vowed she was not completely through with her story.

"Once I prevail, have my children back and divorced, I wil be speaking more of my truth," she wrote in the only post still online. "This is not over, and I cannot wait to share."

Beyond his first statement issued when the Instagram posts began appearing, Morrissey has stayed publicly silent.

The saga began when Morrissey said he discovered lesions on his son's buttocks last week while trying to give him a bath. According to his statement, Morrissey said his other children told him that "Mommy's boyfriend" who lives with her in their Chesterfield residence threatened to discipline them with a belt if they did not apologize to their mother for being disrepectful. The kids told Morrissey the boyfriend struck his son across his buttocks at least six times with the belt, including several times after he had soaked the belt in water.

According to Morrissey, their mother, who was in the house at the time, did nothing to stop the beating. He claimed when he confronted Pride Morrissey about the incident, she threatened him in a text that she would "f***ing ruin you and your life" if he went to the authorities.

The child purposely is not being identified by The Progress-Index.

In the court papers, Rogers ordered Pride Morrissey and the boyfriend, identified in the court documents as Robert Brown, to have "no contact of any kind" with her husband or children. He also gave Morrissey possession of the Chesterfield home where Pride Morrissey and Brown were living, and ordered them to leave.

A temporary restraining order was served on Pride Morrisey Sunday, Jan. 15, and the children were returned to their father. Rogers extended that order until the court date.

Joe Morrissey, a former Richmond commonwealth's attorney and state delegate, has been under public scrutiny for many years over his brushes with controversy. Pride Morrissey was an intern in his law office when they began their relationship. At that time, she was 17 and he was in his 50s, and she gave birth to their first child shortly thereafter.

He was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor as a result of that relationship. Morrissey entered an Alford plea in the case, which means he was not admitting guilt but recognized that the evidence could result in a guilty conviction. He spent time in jail, but was pardoned in early 2022 by outgoing Gov. Ralph Northam.

The Morrisseys were married in 2016 and had two more children. They separated in 2019, the same year when Morrissey relaunched his political career with election to the state Senate.

He is seeking re-election in the redrawn 13th state Senate District, which stretches from eastern Henrico County to Dinwiddie County, and includes Petersburg and Hopewell.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Judge extends protective order against state senator's estranged wife