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The Cayuga County District Attorney's Office said in a news release Friday that the Appellate Division, Fourth Department of New York State Supreme Court recently upheld the conviction and sentencing of William Morrissey III. He was sentenced in January 2024 to two years in state prison for first-degree sexual abuse after admitting to sexually abusing a 14-year-old student and subjecting her to sexually explicit conversations through electronic messages while working as a school resource officer at Auburn High School as a member of the Auburn Police Department.

Cayuga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Valdina handled the appeal.

The Cayuga County Sheriff's Office arrested Morrissey in March 2022 following an investigation started at the request of Auburn police. He was fired by the department later that month after an internal investigation found "overwhelming evidence" he pursued a relationship with the student.

²Ñ´Ç°ù°ù¾±²õ²õ±ð²âÌýpleaded guilty in Cayuga County Court in September 2023 to first-degree sexual abuse and disseminating indecent material to a minor, both Class D felonies. His sentence also included 10 years of post-release supervision for the sexual abuse charge and one to three years in prison for the indecent material charge. He was also sentenced to 364 days in the Cayuga County Jail for the misdemeanors of endangering the welfare of a child and official misconduct. He is serving those sentences concurrently.