A court has found that Aaron von Ehlinger, 39, was guilty of raping a 19-year-old trainee in his apartment after he had dined with her at a Boise restaurant last March. Von Ehlinger, a Republican who resigned as Lewiston spokesman a month after he was charged, was found not guilty of having sex with a foreigner. He argued that the meeting was consensual. The former MP is facing at least one year in prison and life in prison during his sentence, which is scheduled for July. His anonymous prosecution took place on the second day of the trial before he abruptly changed his mind. “He tried to put his toes between my legs and I closed my knees,” he said before getting up. “I can not do that,” he said before hurrying out of the courtroom. When she did not return, her testimony was deleted from the file because the defense did not have the opportunity to examine it. Von Ehlinger faces life in prison in July. James Dawson / Boise State Public Radio, Pool via AP Prosecutors praised the young woman’s bravery in a press conference after the trial. “It took incredible courage for the victim in this case, Jane Doe, to show up,” said Ada County Attorney General Jean Benetz. “I want to acknowledge the courage it took to show up.” Von Ellinger remained calm when the verdict was read after seven hours of discussion. He had told the jury that he asked the trainee to “knock” after dinner in an elegant restaurant and said that they ended up in his apartment. “Things were going well and I asked (Doe) if she would like to move into the bedroom,” said von Ehlinger. “He said, ‘Sure.’ “We got up, shook hands and went into the bedroom.” Prosecutors allege that the then-representative abused “social, political and physical power over the petite trainee”. “He used this force to rape her and infiltrate her by force,” Deputy Attorney Katelyn Farley told jurors during the last hearing. A nurse testified that the teenage girl suffered a “goose egg” in the back of her head when she hit it while trying to escape from von Elinger, who said he had pinned her and forced her to have oral sex while pointing his gun at a chest of drawers. close. his bed. Defense attorneys said the prosecution’s case was full of “red herring” and said von Ellinger’s testimony was credible. Another former employee and lobbyist told a Boise ethics committee that von Ehlinger’s attempts to flirt with them had been “uncomfortable” last April. Publicity from the legislative inquiry into the Republican’s conduct has led the prosecutor to make mistakes on the internet by some of his political supporters. One of her harassers tried to attend the trial, but was kept out of the courtroom. With AP cables
