Posted on: August 15, 2024, 09:26h.
Last updated on: August 15, 2024, 09:26h.
A West Virginia Republican state senator was arrested Tuesday allegedly for pleasuring himself in a video lottery parlor, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Sen. Mike Maroney, 56, was suspended from his duties as chair of the senate’s Health and Human Resources Committee. That’s after being charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure and disorderly conduct.
On Wednesday, he pleaded not guilty to the charges in Marshall County Magistrate Court.
Maroney was spotted on security video by two female employees of Gumby’s Cigarette & Beer World in Glen Dale, near Wheeling, W.V., “committing an act of sexual gratification” in the bar’s slots parlor, according to prosecutors. The alleged incident occurred on August 4 at about 1 p.m. and no one else was in the room at the time.
Senate President Craig Blair (R) told local Fox and ABC affiliate WCHS-TV Wednesday that Maroney had been relieved of his responsibilities so he could dedicate time to his “personal issues.”
The facts that have emerged are troubling, and I am disappointed,” Blair said. “However, in this time, our primary focus is on the well-being of Senator Maroney.”
Blair added that he would offer prayers for his “friend Mike” and his family “as he deals with these issues.”
Maroney was elected to the State Senate in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. He had just months to serve of his tenure after losing his bid for a third term in the 2024 primary.
He previously raised eyebrows in 2019 when he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of soliciting a prostitute. The charge was later dropped for lack of evidence.
The senator’s longtime support of the gaming industry in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle might explain his presence at the video gambling establishment. However, his alleged behavior while there was “not up to the standard of what we expect from our elected leaders in the State Senate of West Virginia,” Blair noted.
In 2020, Maroney opposed a legislative effort to ban greyhound racing in the state, which is now the only state in the US that still offers live races. He described the bill as “disturbing” and “embarrassing,” as he sought to protect the interests of the state’s two northern racinos.
He has also been a champion of sports betting. Again in 2020, he co-sponsored a bill that would have permitted betting on political events, although the events of this week were not a political outcome even the wiliest bettor could have predicted.
Maroney has been released on a $3,500 bond.
