After being charged with indecent exposure and disorderly conduct, the chair of a key West Virginia state legislative committee was removed from his position by chamber leadership on Wednesday.
Republican Senator Mike Maroney, who headed the state Senate Health and Human Resources Committee, was arrested on Tuesday on two misdemeanor charges following an August 4 incident at Gumby’s Cigarette & Beer World in Glen Dale, located just over an hour from Pittsburgh.
Marshall County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Canestraro stated that surveillance video allegedly showed Maroney “engaging in an act of sexual gratification” around 1 p.m. in the establishment’s video lottery room. According to Canestraro, Maroney was the only person in the room at the time.
The Gumby’s employees subsequently contacted the Glen Dale Police Department.
Maroney, who has served in the state senate since 2016, did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on Wednesday. He was arraigned and released on a $3,000 personal recognizance bond Tuesday night, as reported by CBS affiliate WTRF. A court date has yet to be scheduled.
Maroney stripped of committee duties
Senate President Craig Blair, a Republican, announced that he was removing Maroney from his role as Health and Human Resources chair and all other committee duties “to allow him appropriate time to address his personal issues.”
In a statement, Blair expressed “deep concern” for Maroney’s well-being, referring to him as a friend.
“The facts that have surfaced are troubling, and I am disappointed,” Blair said, adding, “While the charges are still under investigation, if proven true, these allegations clearly do not meet the standards we expect from our elected leaders in the West Virginia State Senate.”
Maroney, 56, has only a few months remaining in his second four-year term as a state senator. He ran for reelection but was defeated in the May primary by challenger Chris Rose, a utility company electrician and former coal miner.
Maroney’s loss followed his public opposition to a bill supported by the Republican caucus that would have allowed exemptions from vaccination requirements for some students who don’t attend traditional public schools or participate in group extracurricular activities like sports.
West Virginia is one of the few states in the U.S. that offers only medical exemptions to vaccine mandates. Maroney, a radiologist from Marshall County, criticized the bill as “an embarrassment” on the Senate floor, stating that he believed lawmakers were harming the state.
During the debate over this year’s vaccine bill, which was ultimately vetoed by Republican Governor Jim Justice, Maroney said, “I took an oath to do no harm. There’s no way I can support this bill.”
Maroney also fell out of favor with some Republicans last year when he opposed a total ban on medical interventions for transgender adolescents, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. In a committee meeting, he argued that it was wrong for a group of “mostly medically uneducated people” to pass laws prohibiting proven medical treatments.
Maroney compared banning hormone therapy to banning drugs used to treat mental health disorders and cancer.
If convicted of disorderly conduct, Maroney could face a penalty of 24 hours in jail, a fine of up to $100, or both. For indecent exposure, he could face up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.
By FCCT Editorial Team
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