Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey hoped for a speedier trial.

Now he must wait two months to fight new grand jury indictments — including a charge that he forged a document that he presented as evidence in the case that landed him in jail.

In that case, he was convicted of allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old receptionist in his law office, although he and the teen continue to deny anything happened between them at the time.

The delegate pleaded not guilty to the four charges of forgery, perjury and conspiracy when he was arraigned Monday in Henrico Circuit Court.

Judge Alfred D. Swersky, who has been appointed to hear the case, rejected Delegate Morrissey’s request to hold the trial within three weeks. Delegate Morrissey stated he wanted a fast trial “to erase the manifest harm and injustice created by these indictments.”

Judge Swersky set the jury trial for April 28 for the legislator and his alleged co-conspirator, Deidre Warren, mother of the teen involved in the previous case.

Judge Swersky did agree to allow the delegate to serve as co-counsel in his defense and set a Feb. 23 hearing on Delegate Morrissey’s motion to have unrelated case files and computers seized by police during a search of his law office on Jan. 12 returned to him.

“In my office now, no legal work is being done except receiving phone calls,” Delegate Morrissey told the judge.

He was convicted in December of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor. He now spends his nights at Henrico County Jail – East in New Kent County and attends daytime General Assembly meetings while on work release. His jail term ends in March.

The new charges accuse Delegate Morrissey of creating a document that his attorneys presented in court and persuaded Ms. Warren to attest to its authenticity while under oath.

The document purportedly shows that the teen’s father, Coleman Pride, had agreed to pay $50 a week into her college fund in 2006, a document that Mr. Pride denies ever signing.

Delegate Morrissey’s attorneys claim the document is legitimate and was filed in a Chesterfield County court. The Free Press found the document in an exhibit filed in a Chesterfield Circuit Court civil lawsuit brought against Mr. Pride.

Other information indicates that Mr. Pride mailed an original of the document to Ms. Warren in 2007. The defense also is expected to present a handwriting expert to testify that Mr. Pride signed the document, despite his claims otherwise.

Delegate Morrissey introduced the document in his sentencing hearing to support his claim that the teen was at his home in late August 2013 consulting him about the agreement and her father’s alleged removal of an accumulated $28,000 from her college fund.

Police went to Delegate Morrissey’s house in response to a complaint from Mr. Pride that Delegate Morrissey and his underage daughter were involved in an illegal relationship.

The daughter, who is almost 19 and pregnant, claims her father made up the story to avoid responsibility for taking the money.

Following Delegate Morrissey’s sentencing hearing, Mr. Pride’s claims that the support agreement was bogus led to the new charges.

Police executed the search warrant the day before Delegate Morrissey won a special election to retain his legislative seat and the same day the indictments were issued.

The four-term Democrat triggered the election when he resigned under pressure from colleagues after his conviction, then ran as an independent in the Jan. 13 special election that was called to fill the seat the day before the General Assembly convened.

Despite initial talk, no effort has been made to censure Delegate Morrissey or to expel him from the House of Delegates, though House Speaker William J. Howell has refused to assign him to any legislative committees.

A bill that freshman Petersburg Delegate Joseph E. Preston introduced that was aimed at banning Delegate Morrissey from the House floor while serving his sentence ended up being killed in the House Courts of Justice Committee.