Breaking: Former Virginia Beach Lawyer and Ex-Portsmouth Prosecutor Matthew Taylor Morris Arrested on Sexual Battery, Assault Charges Linked to Water Country USA Incident

According to the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, the investigation began July 18 after a complaint involving two sisters, ages 14 and 17. The teens reported that a man approached them multiple times at the water park, initiating flirtatious conversations. The 17-year-old said he touched her on the buttocks; the 14-year-old said he stroked her arm. They told their mother, who contacted authorities.

Morris was charged with sexual battery and two counts of assault. He is being held in the Norfolk City Jail. Local reports identify him as the same Matthew Taylor Morris who previously practiced law in Virginia Beach and worked as a Portsmouth prosecutor.

Background: Federal Drug Trafficking Case and Professional Fallout

Morris has a significant prior criminal record involving federal drug charges stemming from activity while he ran a private law practice.

From roughly March 2021 to May 2022, while operating Top Tier Law Group on South Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach, Morris participated in a marijuana distribution conspiracy with Donald Thomas Rogers (owner of VA Premier Pawn, a federal firearms licensee), Nicholas Cameron Capehart, and Jeffrey Donald Sines. The group stored approximately 1,000 pounds of marijuana and related THC products (vape pens, wax, edibles) plus cash proceeds at Morris’s law office. The street value was estimated between $800,000 and $1.6 million.

Rogers supplied Morris with about 15 pounds of THC products per month (roughly 70 pounds total) for retail sales, including referrals of Morris’s own legal clients. Morris also allegedly received a 9mm handgun from Rogers while being an unlawful user of Adderall, cocaine, opiates, and THC. The group used encrypted messaging. In one documented instance, Morris advised Capehart (then in Las Vegas) on how to ship marijuana products back to the Tidewater area by disguising them as souvenirs and labeling the package as “legal mail” to his firm in an attempt to invoke privilege.

Morris resigned from the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office on September 6, 2024 (he had been hired around August 2022, after the conspiracy period ended). Federal charges were filed days later. On September 24, 2024, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Norfolk to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

On February 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker sentenced him to 18 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. He was ordered to report by April 7, 2025. Guidelines had suggested 24–30 months; the judge noted the seriousness of using his law practice to further the conspiracy while giving credit for acceptance of responsibility.

The Virginia State Bar summarily suspended his law license effective October 1, 2024, based on the guilty plea, and revoked it on October 4, 2024, after Morris consented to revocation.

Earlier Professional and Personal Issues

Morris’s legal troubles predated the federal case. In 2022 he faced multiple Virginia State Bar suspensions, was found with a firearm in his briefcase at the Virginia Beach courthouse on two occasions (leading to contempt findings), was barred from handling criminal cases in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, and received a public reprimand in 2023 for unauthorized practice of law while administratively suspended for nonpayment of dues. He has acknowledged personal drug-use issues beginning around 2016 when he opened his private practice.

The current charges are pending. Morris remains in custody at the Norfolk City Jail. This report is based on official statements from the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, court records, and contemporaneous local news coverage.

• DOB: May 19, 1986
• Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/matt.morris.73744801