I hadn’t seen much of the Vito Fossella story since late last week. So I hadn’t seen that Fossella’s secret life was much more involved then I’d realized. At first I’d thought that Fossella had simply had an extramarital affair in which he’d fathered a child — not the most unusual story. And it actually struck me as a point in his favor that he was actually trying to be a father in his daughter’s life — something I still think is a point in his favor. Remember, part of what tripped him up was that he’d told the arresting officers in his DWI arrest that he was going to visit his daughter, who was sick. He probably could have weathered having a female friend bail him out of jail. Explaining what he meant by visiting his daughter was a bit more difficult.
Later of course it turned out that this wasn’t an affair that was in the past: Fossella had an on-going relationship Laura Fay, the retired Air Force Colonel who mothered his child.
What I hadn’t realized was that Fossella was juggling at a level usually reserved for the plot lines of thoroughly incredible hollywood movies.
Not only was Fossella keeping his wife and family in the dark about his girlfriend and child in Northern Virginia. He was also keeping his girlfriend and child in Northern Virginia in the dark that he was still married and had a family in New York.
According to the Daily News, which has basically owned this story, Fossella had told Fay that he was separated from his wife. And it wasn’t until Fay saw a draft of his press release apologizing for the incident that she realized that he was actually still married.
