A lawmaker was caught on tape dumping water into her colleague’s bag. He says it’s part of a yearslong pattern of bullying.

Rep. Jim Carroll, D-Bennington, said his district-mate, Rep. Mary Morrissey, R-Bennington, has taunted him for years with verbal harassment.

By Sarah Mearhoff
June 13, 2024, 7:54 pm



A game camera set up by state Rep. Jim Carroll in a Statehouse corridor repeatedly caught fellow Bennington Rep. Mary Morrissey in the act of pouring water from a cup into his bag of personal belongings, from April 2024. Screenshot from a video Carroll released to media this week.

A Vermont lawmaker who has admitted to and apologized for repeatedly dumping water into a colleague’s bag at the Statehouse described her behavior as “out of character,” while the targeted legislator said the episode followed years of verbal taunting.

State Rep. Mary Morrissey, R-Bennington, was twice caught on video pouring water into the bag of her district-mate, Rep. Jim Carroll, D-Bennington, in April. Carroll has said his bag was soaked almost daily at certain points in the recently concluded legislative session.

Carroll, who recorded the incidents with a video camera after seeking the Capitol Police’s assistance in identifying the culprit, released the footage publicly on Tuesday after an account of the scheme was first published by Seven Days last week.



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