A Minnesota state senator is facing calls to resign after he was arrested and accused of arranging to solicit a teenage girl for prostitution.
Justin Eichorn, a Republican, thought he was talking to a 17-year-old girl when he arranged a meetup in Bloomington, a suburb of Minneapolis, police said, but he was actually communicating with an undercover detective.
Eichorn arrived at the location in a pickup truck and was arrested Monday “without incident,” Bloomington police said.
Records show he was being detained at Hennepin County Jail on Wednesday morning. It was unclear whether he had retained an attorney, and his Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police said he was being investigated in connection with possible felony charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Wednesday morning that it had not yet received the case.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges has described the entire city as the “Orange Jumpsuit District” because it does not have a “red-light district” for sex work.
“As a 40-year-old man, if you come to the Orange Jumpsuit District looking to have sex with someone’s child, you can expect that we are going to lock you up,” Hodges said in a statement Tuesday.
Minnesota House Republican leaders, Speaker Lisa Demuth and Leader Harry Niska, said in a joint statement: “Given the seriousness of the charges, Senator Eichorn should resign. While he is entitled to due process, we must hold legislators to a higher standard.”
The Senate Republican Caucus also called on Eichorn to step down.
“We are shocked by these reports and this alleged conduct demands an immediate resignation,” the caucus said in a statement. “Justin has a difficult road ahead and he needs to focus on his family.”
Eichorn is married with four children, according to his biography on the Minnesota Senate website.
He gained notoriety recently for sponsoring a proposed bill that would recognize “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a form of mental illness. It defines “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump.”
Eichorn is the second Minnesota senator in office who faces felony charges. Nicole Mitchell, a Democrat from the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury, was arrested last spring after authorities said she broke into her stepmother’s home following her father’s death, according to a criminal complaint.
She has pleaded not guilty to a charge of felony first-degree burglary and intends to plead not guilty to a charge of felony possession of tools to commit burglary or theft, said one of her attorneys, Bruce Ringstrom Jr.
