636: Steve Marino

Steve Marino was a Republican State Representative for Michigan District 24 until he was term limited out. He was replaced by a Republican. In 2021, he was removed from committee assignments and required to have an escort in the state capitol building after Rep. Mari Manoojian, whom he had dated the year before, filed a complaint about the harassing and threatening texts he sent her.

She said he harassed her face to face and via text and provided screen shots of him threatening her, including hoping her car blows up and warning her about coming to work. She sought and got a protective order.

Although Michigan State Police investigated and submitted a report to the Ingham County Prosecutor, the prosecutor’s office declined to file charges. Prosecutors are not required to explain charging decisions.

• Michigan Advance: Rep. Manoogian alleges Rep. Marino committed domestic violence
• Detroit Free Press: Prosecutors won’t charge Rep. Marino with stalking after Rep. Manoogian alleged abuse

Detroit Free Press
Detroit, Michigan · Saturday, September 18, 2021

608: Matt Wingard

Matt Wingard had two felony indictments for child abuse and pled guilty to criminal assault against a seven-year-old when he was accused by a former aide of giving her alcohol when she was underage (twenty) and pressuring her to have sex. He put her on his payroll and began an affair.

She also alleged that he drugged her, though she clarified that she believed it but had no proof he drugged her. Many Republicans attacked the woman and called her a liar but Wingard admitted the “affair” while denying coercing her.

In the end he resigned, but four years later, he was back trying to make a comeback. He was opposed in the primary by Right to Life. They sent out a mailer reminding people he was a sexual predator. He sued, but lost even after taking it all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court.

• Willamette Week: A Violation of Trust?
• The Oregonian: Are we Republicans applying a double standard in Matt Wingard case?
• Statesman Journal: Return of Matt Wingard is the ‘shock of the day’
• Willamette Week: Oregon Supreme Court Declines to Hear Former State Rep. Matt Wingard’s Appeal on Defamation Case

Albany Democrat-Herald
Albany, Oregon · Saturday, June 23, 2012

602: Andrew Chesney

Andrew Chesney is an Illinois state senator, but he was a representative in the state House of Representatives when he likened sex education to pornography and perversion. Lack of age appropriate sex education leaves children vulnerable to abuse and predators.

• Newsweek: GOP Lawmaker Likens Sex Education to Porn, Blames Lack of Independent Legislative Maps
• WIFR: Community reacts to signing of new sex education bill
• Andrew Chesney Legislative Site: Rep. Andrew Chesney characterizes sex-ed bill for schoolchildren as “perversion”

Internet Archive of Rep. Chesney’s website

599: Danny Hamrick

Danny Hamrick was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates until he lost his seat to redistricting. While in the House, he was forced to resign from the House Education Committee as punishment for a consensual affair with an intern that violated the House of Delegates sexual harassment policy as in her position as a staff intern placed her under his supervision.

• MetroNews: Hamrick’s relationship with female staff intern triggered resignation
• Wheeling News Register Intelligencer: We Have Our Own Intern Scandal

Morgantown Dominion Post
May 2, 2019, Page 4
Morgantown, West Virginia, US

598: Rocky Miller

Rocky Miller was a Republican representative in the Missouri House. An independent investigation commissioned by the House Ethics Committee found that he created a false rumor implicating another representative, accusing him of having an affair with a legislative employee. They also determined that his actions did not qualify as sexual harassment under federal or state law, but did seem to violate the House’s own sexual harassment policy.

His discipline was a requirement to attend sexual harassment training and write a letter of apology to the employee.

• News Tribune: Report says Missouri Rep. Rocky Miller created false affair rumor
• KRCG: Speaker: Discipline done for Missouri lawmaker over rumor

St. Joseph News-Press
St. Joseph, Missouri · Saturday, April 06, 2019

597: Brian Bosma

Brian Bosma was the Speaker of the House in Indiana for six terms. He retired from the legislature in 2020. In 2018, a former intern confirmed that she had a technically consensual sexual relationship with Bosma, but that she felt she was coerced into it. When Bosma learned the story was being investigated, he spent $40,000 to investigate her, having her friends and family questioned. He is accused of using intimidation to attempt to silence her, threatening to release unflattering information to the public.

• AP News: Ex-intern says she had 1992 fling with Indiana house speaker
• Nuvo: Republicans Express Support for Speaker Brian Bosma After Recent Allegations
• Indy Star: Former intern says Brian Bosma tried to intimidate her over alleged sexual encounter

Palladium-Item
Richmond, Indiana · Friday, November 02, 2018

594: Chad Perkins

Chad Perkins is a radio host and a Republican representative in the Missouri state legislature. He is a former police officer. It is alleged that while a police officer, he had sex with a drunk nineteen-year-old teenager in his custody. He claims it was consensual and bringing it up is political maneuvering.

There is no such thing as consent when a person is in custody of the police. To add to the inability to consent is the fact she was drunk. This is rape.

Perkins called the woman when he learned this scandal was going public and warned her not to tell the truth, threatening her that her name would be dragged through the mud. She provided records of his calls.

In a case of epic irony, Perkins supported a bill that made it a felony for a law enforcement officer to “engage in sexual conduct with a detainee or prisoner who is in the custody of such officer.”

He is still in the legislature.

• St. Louis Post Dispatch: Report alleges Missouri lawmaker had sex with teen while he was a cop
• AP News: Woman: Missouri lawmaker told her to deny allegations

The Kansas City Star
Kansas City, Missouri · Saturday, May 29, 2021

593: Kyle Tasker

Kyle Tasker was a Republican state representative in New Hampshire. He met a fourteen-year-old girl at a community breakfast and began sending her texts asking her to meet with him and promising her drugs and alcohol. She told her mother. The mother reported this to the police who took over the girl’s Facebook account and arranged to meet him at a beach where he was arrested.

He resigned from the legislature, but a bill he sponsored for body cameras was going to become law and they had to maneuver to remove his name from it.

He pleaded guilty to nine felonies: four counts of using a computer to lure a minor for sex and five counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to distribute. He was sentenced to three to ten years in prison.

After two years in prison, while on work release, he sent a Facebook message to a friend of the girl. Prosecutors wanted his sentence extended but the judge just gave him a warning. This demonstrates that prison did nothing to deter him.

• Concord Monitor: Former NH lawmaker sentenced for 3-10 years for drugs and sex solicitation
• NH Criminal Offender Registry: Kyle Tasker
• Concord Monitor: Former State Rep. Kyle Tasker gets warning from judge, but no extra prison time

The Boston Globe
19 Apr 2016, Tue · Page B3

589: Anthony Bouchard

Anthony Bouchard is a Wyoming State Senator. He also ran in the 2022 primary for U. S. House and got 2.6% of the vote. This may be because he was forced to admit that he got a fourteen-year-old child pregnant when he was a young man. He was eighteen. He married her. They divorced three years later. She killed herself when she was twenty.

He made the information public in order to get ahead of the story breaking. He presents the story as an anti-abortion morality tale where he is the hero, marrying for the sake of the child, etc. He calls it a Romeo and Juliet situation. He does not acknowledge that an 18 year-old preying on a 14-year old child is rape. He does not acknowledge the harm he did at all, portraying himself as the victim of dirty politics. He’s no hero and he’s no victim, he is a predator.

• Facebook: Senator Bouchard takes on fake news media
• Caspar Star Tribune: US House candidate Bouchard says he impregnated 14-year-old when he was 18
• NY1: Wyoming senator challenging Cheney in GOP primary discloses impregnating 14-year-old at 18

The Billings Gazette
Billings, Montana · Saturday, May 22, 2021

587: Mark Samsel

Mark Samsel was a Kansas state representative. He also worked as a substitute teacher until one day he began ranting about god, the Bible, suicide, and masturbation. In the midst of this, he kicked a student in the groin. Another student captured it on camera.

The student had put ear buds in while Samsel was telling students of an (imaginary?) Black student who attempted suicide because he had two mothers. He pushed him against the wall and kicked him in the testicles. Incredibly, he explained the incident as part of a planned lecture to teach students to be kinder to each other.

He avoided jail time under a plea deal pleading to disorderly conduct rather than battery. He got a year’s probation. He surrendered his teaching license and lost his re-election primary.

• Mercury News: Kansas lawmaker accused of kicking teen in the groin while teaching an art class
• NBC: Kansas lawmaker charged with kicking student in groin pleads guilty to disorderly conduct

The Wichita Eagle
Wichita, Kansas · Tuesday, September 14, 2021

The Wichita Eagle
Wichita, Kansas · Tuesday, September 14, 2021