A Republican West Virginia lawmaker was removed from a committee he chaired on Wednesday after he was charged with indecent exposure.
State Senator Mike Maroney, 56, was ousted from the legislature’s Health and Human Resources Committee on Wednesday following his arrest on Tuesday for an indecent exposure charge and a disorderly conduct charge, both misdemeanors. In total, Maroney faces up to a year in jail, fines up to $600, or both for his charges.
Maroney’s arrest is linked to an incident at Gumby’s Cigarette & Beer World in Glen Dale, which is a little over a two-and-a-half-hour drive northeast of West Virginia’s capital city Charleston, on August 4.
Employees at Gumby’s allegedly saw Maroney on surveillance video “committing an act of sexual gratification” at about 1 p.m. local time in the establishment’s lottery room, Marshall County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Canestraro said. Maroney was the only person in the room at the time of the incident, Canestraro said.
Newsweek reached out to Maroney’s office and Canestraro’s office via email for comment on Wednesday afternoon.
This stock image shows a gavel in a court. A Republican West Virginia lawmaker was removed from a committee he chaired on Wednesday after he was charged with indecent exposure.
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West Virginia Senate President Craig Blair, a Republican, said he was removing Maroney as head of the Health and Human Resources committee and of all other committee repsonsibilties “to give him appropriate time to dedicate to his personal issues.”
“Above all, I am deeply concerned for our friend and colleague,” Blair said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “The facts that have emerged are troubling, and I am disappointed. However, in this time, our primary focus is on the well-being of Senator Maroney”
Blair continued: “Like all citizens, Senator Maroney is entitled to full due process as this matter works its way through the legal system. We join in prayer for our friend Mike and his family as he deals with these issues.”
Maroney, a radiologist who has served in the state senate since 2016, had his reelection campaign come to an end in May when he was defeated by his primary challenger Chris Rose, a utility company electrician and former coal miner.
Before losing to Rose, Maroney opposed a bill pushed by the Republican caucus that would have allowed some students who don’t attend traditional public schools or participate in group extracurriculars to be exempt from commonly required vaccines. He also opposed a total ban on medical interventions for transgender teens such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy last year.
Maroney was arraigned and released on a $3,000 bond Tuesday night.
