BOISE, Idaho — A former Idaho state representative who resigned from his seat after a criminal investigation into reports that he had sexually assaulted a 19-year-old Statehouse staffer denied the charges in court Monday.
Aaron von Ehlinger, 39, pleaded not guilty to felony counts of rape and forcible penetration. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to life in prison and mandatory registration as a sex offender.
Boise Police launched an investigation into von Ehlinger, a Republican from Juliaetta, after the legislative intern reported that he had forced her to perform oral sex after the pair went out to dinner together in March. The lawmaker resigned the next month after a bipartisan ethics committee found he had committed misconduct in his romantic pursuit of the 19-year-old and several other women who worked in the Idaho Capitol.
A warrant for von Ehlinger's arrest was issued in September, and he was arrested at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia weeks later when he returned to the United States from what his lawyer described as a months-long vacation in Central America.
Von Ehlinger is currently free on his own recognizance, meaning he did not have to post any bond to get out of jail, ahead of his trial.
The former legislator is due back in court for a status conference April 11; the trial is set to begin April 26.
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