(NewsNation) — Vermont State Rep. Jim Carroll says he wants to believe the apology he’s received from fellow lawmaker Mary Morrissey after he caught her on video repeatedly pouring water into a bag he’d hung on a common coatrack, but it’s still painful.
“It was deliberate. No question about it. She intended to make me miserable. And it worked,” Carroll told NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live” on Thursday.
Carroll says the first time he found water in the tote bag in January during the legislative session, he thought that snow had gotten in. When it happened again, he knew something was wrong.
“I was wracking my brain, thinking ‘Who would do this, and why?’”
Carroll set up a hidden camera near the coatrack, and a couple of days later caught Morrissey pouring water from a small plastic cup into his bag.
“And then I saw her. It was her. There was no mistake. I said out loud, to myself, ‘There’s no good that’s gonna come of this.’”
Morrissey, a Republican, has apologized, telling her colleagues on the Statehouse floor, “I am truly ashamed of my actions.”
She also issued a statement that said: “I have given my sincere apology to Jim directly and publicly, and will be working towards resolution and restoration through our legislative process. It was conduct most unbecoming of my position as a representative and as a human being and is not reflective of my 28 years of service and civility.”
Responding to Morrissey’s words on the house floor, Democrat Carroll said it was sad she didn’t apologize before the videos became public. The Vermont publication Seven Days made the videos public after obtaining them under the state’s Public Records Act.
Morrissey hasn’t said why she did it, and she didn’t respond to an email from the Associated Press seeking comment.
“I believe in her sincerity. I want to (believe her),” Carroll told NewsNation. He added that he’s ready to meet with Morrissey, but said “the first meeting we have is gonna be very awkward, but we gotta start somewhere.”
