Freshman Delegate Jay Jalisi (D-10) is getting an unusual level of media attention for all the wrong reasons:
A freshman Baltimore County state delegate agreed Monday to a yearlong protective order barring him from contact with his teenage daughter, and later in the day lost his seat on a committee that deals with domestic violence issues.
The 18-year-old daughter of Del. Hasan “Jay” Jalisi had alleged in court papers that her father slapped her during an argument last month. She sought a protective order against him that was granted by District Judge Sally Chester in Towson.
Baltimore County police were called to the family’s Lutherville home after the argument. No criminal charges were filed.
The order prohibits Jalisi from going into the house where his daughter, son and wife live, though he is allowed to drive to the house to pick up his son. Jalisi also must stay away from the local college his daughter attends.
Former Del. Luiz Simmons, who lost the Democratic primary for Senate to now Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-17) in an election in which domestic violence was an issue, served as Jalisi’s legal representative. The video at the top of this post shows Simmons arguing that Jalisi’s position on the Judiciary Committee that deals with domestic violence issues should be unaffected.
Wisely, Speaker Michael Busch thought differently and moved Jalisi to the Environment and Transportation Committee.
Even prior to this incident, Jalisi had been developing a poor reputation in the House of Delegates. A surprise winner in the Democratic primary, it will probably be less of a shock when he is not in the House in 2019–or sooner.
In the television interview, Jalisi characterized his failure to challenge the protective order as allowing an adult child to make a choice–like it’s akin to the first time she rode a bike without training wheels. However, it’s hard to imagine a politician just starting out consenting to a protective order unless he thought that the publicity resulting from challenging it would be even worse.
Del. Jalisi thinks it’s all good:
“It doesn’t affect my position,” Jalisi said. “There was no finding of fact. … I was not declared as convicted of anything.”
Obviously, he has never heard of the Court of Public Opinion.
