{"id":656,"date":"2013-12-10T21:35:20","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T02:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=656"},"modified":"2013-12-10T21:35:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T02:35:20","slug":"attorney-general-patrick-morrisey-cardinal-health-and-trouble-in-berkeley-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=656","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, Cardinal Health and Trouble in Berkeley Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey came to Berkeley Springs last night as part of his statewide listening tour. It was billed as a town hall meeting. Morrisey said he wanted to hear from citizens about whatever was on their minds.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/glRKkcLUhWE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But when one citizen raised the issue of money in politics and Morrisey\u2019s connection to a healthcare services company, Morrisey responded by saying that it was merely one person \u201ctrying to cause trouble\u201d and that there was \u201cone newspaper down in Charleston that has been saying a lot of things that aren\u2019t true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The issue involves Cardinal Health, a Fortune 500 healthcare services company based in Dublin, Ohio.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Morrisey\u2019s wife, Denise Henry, is a lobbyist for the company.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Morrisey\u2019s campaign took $4,000 from Cardinal Health executives during his campaign last year.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And a Cardinal Health political action committee donated $2,500 to Morrisey\u2019s inaugural ball, according to the Charleston Gazette.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Before becoming Attorney General, Morrisey lobbied for the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, a trade group that represents Cardinal Health.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Last year, Morrisey\u2019s predecessor, Darrell McGraw, sued Cardinal Health, alleging that the company helped fuel West Virginia\u2019s prescription drug abuse epidemic by not implementing \u201cadequate safeguards to prevent prescription drugs which it distributed from being unlawfully diverted, despite warnings from internal investigators.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Morrisey inherited the case when he became Attorney General in January.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Morrisey issued a statement in July saying that he had recused himself from the Cardinal Health litigation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cEarlier this year, I recused myself from the litigation as it pertains to Cardinal Health,\u201d Morrisey said in the statement. \u201cMy chief counsel, Dan Greear, has been managing the special assistant Attorneys General assigned to this matter since the beginning of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But a Boone County Courthouse Clerk\u2019s office spokesperson said today that there is no record in the court docket that Morrisey has withdrawn or recused himself from the Cardinal Health litigation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And the Gazette reported in October that despite the \u201crecusal,\u201d Morrisey held a meeting with Cardinal Health executives and the company&#8217;s lawyer about the lawsuit in May and fielded correspondence about the case in late June.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The defense lawyer for Cardinal Health in the pill distribution case?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Mark A. Carter, a partner at Dinsmore &amp; Shohl. Carter headed Morrisey&#8217;s campaign transition team before the Attorney General took office on January 14.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Last night, Morrisey was asked when he recused himself from the Cardinal Health case.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cEarlier this year, I stepped aside from a number of cases because I thought it was the right thing to do,\u201d Morrisey said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhen did you recuse yourself?\u201d Morrisey was asked.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWell, I actually haven\u2019t been involved overseeing the case from the beginning of the year,\u201d Morrisey said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhen did you recuse yourself?\u201d Morrisey was asked again.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI said &#8212; I haven\u2019t been involved,\u201d Morrisey said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cBut you said you recused yourself. When exactly did you recuse yourself?\u201d Morrisey was asked again.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cI said &#8212; I have not been involved in the case from the beginning of the year,\u201d Morrisey said. \u201cI have not been involved in any of the day to day oversight. I never met with the outside counsel on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWhat we have here &#8212; this is an effort to try to cause trouble and to try to create different issues where none exist,\u201d Morrisey said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t required to recuse from this matter. You had one newspaper and another gentleman trying to continually make this an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the town hall meeting was concluded, Morrisey was asked if there was any documentation of his recusal or withdrawal. He said there wasn\u2019t. But Morrisey also said that he couldn\u2019t reveal attorney\/client confidential information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey came to Berkeley Springs last night as part of his statewide listening tour. It was billed as a town hall meeting. Morrisey said he wanted to hear from citizens about whatever was on their &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=656\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}