Posted on 11/18/2018 4:52:52 PM PST by Kaslin
Before killing himself with a drug intended for rapid and painless animal euthanasia, Richard A. Morrisett had endured a nightmare at the University of Texas in Austin. The 57-year-old tenured professor of pharmacology and toxicology was once a rising star in the College of Pharmacy – a man regarded as a first-rate research scientist and teacher during his 21 years at the state's flagship university. Morrisett's research offered new insights into alcohol-related brain disorders and alcoholism – an arcane area of research among neuroscientists. Some colleagues called him “brilliant.”
Morrisett's career, however, was destroyed by a single newspaper article. Published by the Austin American-Statesman, a metropolitan daily, the article dredged up an ugly episode from Morrisett's past – a domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend at the time. It was the sort of inexcusable incident that, sadly, the police and courts handle all the time. There were no serious injuries; it hadn't even merited a headline when it occurred on May 28, 2016. Morrisett, in a plea deal, pleaded guilty to a 3rd degree felony. He was sentenced to four years of probation, called community supervision in Texas, and ordered to receive counseling, take a class on avoiding family violence, and perform 100 hours of community service. Morrisett had thought he was moving on with his life. He had accepted responsibility for his actions and, moreover, had put an apparently volatile and dysfunctional relationship behind him.
Then, more than a year and a half after the incident, a Statesman reporter contacted Morrisett about the domestic violence case. On his lawyer's advice, Morrisett declined to comment. And not long after that, on Thursday, January 25, his nightmare began: He woke up to see a banner headline across the Statesman's front page:
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
#MeToo has a bright side?
These people don't care about women. They want power. They break eggs because they want an omelette.
The #metoo canal and their media enablers are going to cause replays of this for years.
The guy was an admitted felon. Sympathy evaporated when I got to that nugget. Better poster boys (such as the Duke folks) can be found. It looks like there were no false accusations here - he pled it down to a felony.
As for his exit - shooting himself in the head in the newspaper offices would have been a more meaningful way to go.
The statesman is detestable. It always has been. Sadly, it is typical of today’s media. They killed Morissett and he chose not to fight back. There will be a time that they will pick on the wrong person, and he will exact his own revenge on them. Then someone else will write their story.
I never understood suicide - Sins are forgiven, shame dissipates over time, and there are many habitable countries which have no extradition treaty with the US.
I don’t think it matters how he killed himself. He’s dead, isn’t he?
[As for his exit - shooting himself in the head in the newspaper offices would have been a more meaningful way to go.]
[A long time ago, when I was 12 or 13 and just introduced to idea of suicide by the self-killing of a man in our very small town (I was either a slow learner or raised in a different time), I asked my father with some vague anxiety if he had ever considered killing himself. [I do not know the circumstances of the unremembered man’s suicide, but my father’s response, on reflection, makes me suspect he did.]
His answer to me stuck with me through all these years, and became a response to live by: “Hell no, son. If anybody is ever grinding on me so hard that somebody has to die, it won’t be me!”]
The Statesman’s article noted that Morrisett was charged with choking his 44-year-old girlfriend until she “saw stars.”
Morrisett had wanted her out of his house, according to the police report, and he briefly pinned her to the bed with one hand over her throat. “I just choked you, is that not enough?” he said, according to a deputy’s affidavit.
Meeting deputies in his driveway, Morrisett even asked them how to remove his girlfriend, and upon further investigation deputies observed evidence of abuse from red marks on her neck, upper lip, and front shoulder.
The two apparently had a volatile relationship, according to Morrisett’s ex-wife. “It’s just hearsay, but I heard that she may have been as abusive to him as he was to her.”
Morrisett was charged with family violence with strangulation.
A restraining order prohibited him from having further contact with his girlfriend – and yet she continued living with him at his Austin home.
Less than two months later, the Statesman noted, she visited a local hospital complaining of neck and lower back pain. She subsequently told a police officer that Morrisett, after learning a grand jury had indicted him in the earlier assault case, become enraged, grabbed her arms, and threw her to the ground, the Statesman reported.
Why did she continue living with Morrisett? In an affidavit, a deputy quoted her as saying she was afraid to have the protective order enforced. Morrisett faced additional charges.
Did alcohol play a role in the domestic violence incidents? Court records don’t say. But Morrisett was a drinker despite being a nationally recognized expert on alcohol use (who also provided expert testimony in legal cases, including to his own lawyer).
His ex-wife said they both drank socially during their leisure hours, sometimes to excessive levels. They were divorced eight years ago.
Interestingly, the autopsy report dated September 19, 2018, noted that Morrisett’s “heart was moderately enlarged, which can be seen in hypertension (high-blood pressure) and chronic alcohol use.”
Asked about alcoholism, Morrisett’s ex-wife said: “I don’t believe that he felt he had a problem with alcoholism. He was able to control his drinking, but we both drank to excess at times. I could say that some of the spats we had were alcohol fueled on his part and my part.”
The only good white man is a dead white man.
That was going to be my response. Thanks. When I saw Weinstein’s name attached to it I knew no good would become of it.
So all felons who have served whatever their term is should kill themselves? Sorry, I don’t think so. I believe this poor man was a victim of internet harassment. Unless you’ve had it happen to you (and I know of what I speak) don’t be so free to condemn the dead man, my Friend.
May 2016 is not exactly the past. Pretty darn current in fact.
Think I would gun down as many revolution student front members as possible before I considered offing myself.
I worked in an academic medicine setting for decades...at a very well known hospital and research center.The human brain is,in a very real sense,just another organ.And like all the other major organs of the body the brain,being the most complicated of the organs,is subject to a myriad of structural and chemical disorders.It's been shown that in clinical depression very real chemical changes occur in the brain.The more pronounced the change or imbalance the more serious the potential consequences.One particular type of imbalance can cause one to believe that he/she is being watched by space aliens (I've actually seen such a patient).Another can cause one to believe that death is the *only* option.
Shouldn’t the Austin American-Statesman be calling for the removal of terrorist William Ayers from the U of Chicago?
Austin makes Texans ashamed. Its Leftist rag of a newspaper would not be seen in the homes of decent Americans. The majority of the Leftist professors at the university are bigots who promote the amoral attitude of those in this tragic article. They are accomplices in the death of the victim.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.