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.

jake gettis is on the case.

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.

i do not understand how that works. i guess some kind of initial "that wasn't me, i gotta go" and then admitting it at the next meeting when it's clear this isn't going away.

"It was a very uncomfortable meeting," Carroll recalled.

lmao. i can't even imagine.

After the meeting, Krowinski blocked Morrissey, who was first elected in 1997, from serving on a key legislative committee. The matter was then referred to the House Ethics Panel. The status of the complaint is unclear.

literally 27 YEARS as a state government legislator and you get caught on camera being a deranged shithead to a colleague. TWICE. because you have displayed a pattern of doing it so frequently and brazenly that columbo jr could nail you with a $23 camera. TWICE! this is like someone getting caught eating/throwing out a coworker's lunch multiple times just to be a dick, and there doesn't seem to be any political motivation to it either. it's not like murder or assault or violent threats, but it's the sort of thing that any one of us could imagine happening to us at work by some cowardly petty obsessive bully and confronting them purely for personal satisfaction.

my gut says any media traction / virality this story gets is is gonna compound how dogpiled she gets and that will drive the institution to cut her loose to avoid her stink contaminating them. like at this point, the victim has outed her and doesn't need to do much to get a big ball rolling over her career.

EDIT: as of an hour or so ago, Associated Press, Sky News, Yahoo, MSN and USAToday have picked up the story. also, the full details of the story are on her wikipedia page, making up 95% of its content. welcome to the news cycle, lady. you famous.