Former CBS anchor loses job and faces charges after defending himself against wife's attack

Submitted by charlie on Fri, 2014-04-25 02:32

At first reading this story seems to a satire from "The Onion." But it's true. He has blood running down his face in his booking photograph and has sent photos of his previous bruises to his wife's parents. Yet he is charged and convicted of domestic abuse. The upside down world of domestic abuse in the USA. Excerpt:

'Rob Morrison, the former New York City CBS anchorman forced to quit his $300,000 a year job after he was arrested for choking his wife walked away from court on Thursday with all charges dropped.

Morrison, who is still married to former CBS MoneyWatch anchor Ashley Morrison was allowed to withdraw his previous guilty plea for the assault after completing a domestic violence program.
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Morrison was joined in court briefly by his wife of 11-years, who left him last year after he was accused of strangling her in a drunken argument in the early hours of the morning.
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'My behavior was reprehensible,' he said according to the Stamford Advocate.
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According to Darien police, Morrison had acted violently towards his wife that evening and ended up choking her with both hands.
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Arresting officer, Patrick Clohessy said that Morrison, 'threatened that if he was released from police custody, he would kill his wife,' according to note taken down after the arrest and filed in court as evidence.
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A source who spoke to the Stamford Advocate said that the dispute began after they got into a fight over Facebook picture updates.

The source claimed that Morrison said he wife hit him and that he sent pictures of his wounds to her parents to show them and to get them to calm down his wife.

Ashley Morrison was not arrested nor charged with any crime after the disturbance.

However, Morrison's mugshot released by the Darien Police Department did show a cut and blood on his nose bridge and a bruise on his jaw.
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Friends of the couple have told the news service that Morrison is making amends and is carefully following his court-mandated therapy, although he 'has a lot of work to do'.'

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Comments

She attacks him, he responds by choking her. That happens all the time in, for example, ordinary fights (i.e., between people who don't live together or are involved romantically). It typically results in both parties charges with something, or the person who started it only charged, even if the choker makes threats after the police arrive in the heat of anger over being the one initially assaulted.

That's if the people involved are of the same sex.

However if they are opposite sexes regardless of whether or not they live together or are romantically involved, in that case the man is arrested and charged and the woman is neither.

Looks to me like they both have issues with conflict, but perhaps Ashley moreso. After all, she was the one who attacked him, right? But she does not even face charges, not even nominally. Instead, it's all on him. He has to confess to being bad, evil, and of course, the worse possible thing, MALE!. He then had to go to some kind of DV counseling. Assuming what is reported in this article is accurate and doesn't leave out further salient details, in essence he was punished for defending himself. He also seems like he's fine remaining with a woman who assaults him when she gets angry with him; should he have the temerity to let others know what is happening to him, he will it seems get attacked by her again -- read the article carefully, esp. this line:

"The source claimed that Morrison said he wife hit him and that he sent pictures of his wounds to her parents to show them and to get them to calm down his wife."

She attacked him and he conveyed the evidence to his in-laws (also see the Standford Examiner article story cited and linked to in the story), then she attacked him again in anger over the fact he did that. He then defended himself (the nerve!), then when the police arrived after his mother-in-law contacted the police over her daughter's behavior, he threatened to kill her if he was released after *he* was arrested. Not a nice thing at all to do; nonetheless, ask yourself if you have heard or heard of someone in anger say things like that, including women? If a woman does it, she does not get charged with making threats. If a man does so, he does.

Chain of events:

Wife attacks husband -> husband inform wife's in-laws asking them to tell her to stop -> wife attacks husband again after doing so -> husband defends himself against this second attack while wife's mother calls police on her daughter -> police arrive and arrest husband who is so mad he threatens wife while police are present -> wife not arrested, husband faces DV and other charges around making threats

Most people would be fine with this.

Now reverse the sexes. Most people would not be fine with this.

No double standard here! *ugh*

I don't know this guy. Knowing just what I know from this article and assuming that is all to know, I'd tell him that if I were him, I'd head for the exit. Again, maybe there's more here that is not covered, but it sounds to me like he's being railroaded (like any given man in this kind of situation) and as long as he stays in it, eventually he'll end up either dead with his former wife claiming self-defense and getting away with it or in jail after he has the gall to defend himself against her subsequent attacks.

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Submitted by Matt on Fri, 2014-04-25 08:57