A trial date has been set for William Morrissey III, the former police officer charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old Auburn High student while working as a school resource officer there.
Judge Thomas Leone announced Thursday after a conference in Cayuga County Court that Morrissey's trial will begin Monday, Oct. 2. A pretrial conference was scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 14.
Morrissey, 33, was charged in March 2022 with the class D felonies of first-degree sexual abuse and disseminating indecent material to a minor, and the misdemeanors of official misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child. In March 2023, a misdemeanor charge of second-degree criminal contempt was added after Morrissey allegedly friended the student on SnapChat the previous fall.
Morrissey was arrested by the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office after an investigation started at the request of the Auburn Police Department, where he worked. According to his indictment, in February 2022 he forcibly grabbed the student's hand and placed it on his penis. He was charged with disseminating indecent material for allegedly having sexually explicit video conversations with the student.
The Auburn Police Department fired Morrissey in March after an internal investigation found "overwhelming evidence" that Morrissey pursued a relationship with the student. Hired by the department in March 2016, he became a school resource officer in Auburn in 2018. The department immediately suspended and removed him from school grounds when the allegations were made.
Represented by attorney George Hildebrandt, Morrissey argued in court in March that the department's investigation violated his rights by influencing the sheriff's office's investigation. During a hearing, it was revealed that Morrissey admitted to investigators he had contact with the student outside of school — giving her rides, buying her sneakers and communicating through SnapChat and FaceTime.
Leone ruled in May that Morrissey's rights weren't violated, upholding his indictment.
