Street. Paul, mine. – Federal prosecutors are trying to block the release of a former state senator from Minnesota who resigned after being accused When requesting a minor for prostitution, leveling new accusations that he tried to obstruct the FBI investigation of the jail and lied to the court staff when he said he did not have a gun in his apartment.
Prosecutors asked the court in a presentation on Sunday for a quick ruling that Justin Eichorn remains in jail instead of freeing a house halfway as scheduled on Tuesday.
Eichorn’s new lawyers, whose hiring was scored for the first time in a presentation of the Court on Sunday, did not immediately respond to the voice emails and the Electronic Associated Press emails in search of comments on Monday. The former 40 -year -old republican legislator from Grand Rapid has not publicly commented since his arrest during a sting operation in Bloomington last Monday. He was accused in a federal court last Wednesday With an attempt to coercive and incentive of a minor to participate in prostitution, a serious crime that entails a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.
In their motion to reopen a detention hearing that was held on Thursday, prosecutors said they learned that he had several phone calls in jail with a woman from Grand Rapids, identified only as the individual A but described as a nearby associate, and arranged with her to recover a computer and other elements of St. Paul’s apartment where she lived alone during the laws. They said that both had been warned that the call was not private and that it would be registered.
According to Eichorn’s profile, which was eliminated from the Senate website last week, it is married and has four children.
“Eichorn’s conduct shows a will to hide material facts of the Court and do so at the expense of public security,” prosecutors wrote. “Even more worrying, given the quick attempt of his and individual to clear St. Paul’s apartment, it is the possibility that Eichorn lied because he thought that his associate could clear the apartment before the services prior to the trial or application of the law could get there.”
When the woman arrived at her department around 9:50 am on Friday, according to the motion, the FBI agents had already secured the unit in preparation for a search. She asked them if she could enter to recover a computer that said it was used for her business. The agents declined and she left. An agent called her a few minutes later and asked her to return for an interview. She refused.
The search warrant, according to the presentation, authorized the FBI to seek evidence related to the incentive of a minor position, as well as evidence of real production or attempted production, receipt, distribution or possession of images of child sexual abuse.
During the search, the agents found a red -type red bag at the counter containing $ 1,000 in cash, a gun and ammunition, a laptop, an SD memory card, an iPhone and several of the visit cards of the Senate of Eichorn, the prosecutors said.
They added that the iPhone seemed to have restored to its factory configuration, which can erase the entire content on the device. While an initial forensic analysis suggested that the phone could have been restored before Eichorn’s arrest, they said, the analysis is not complete and the moment of the restart has not been confirmed.
One of the conditions for the release of Eichorn to a house halfway was that he does not have firearms. But prosecutors claim that he liberated deliberately when he told a service officer prior to trial after his first appearance in the Court last Thursday that he had no firearm in his apartment.
Prosecutors also argued that Eichorn should remain imprisoned because the text messages they exchanged before their arrest with an undercover officer who intended to be a 17 -year -old girl demonstrated her “clear familiarity with the request for commercial sex of minors”, saying that “they represent someone who knows the jargo of trade.” When the officers arrested him, they confiscated two cell phones found in their truck, a unopened condom and $ 129 in cash.
“Eichorn’s messages and behavior reveal an experienced operator,” they wrote. “His prior release to trial brings with him a real risk of trying to victimize other minors in the community.”
Eichorn listed his profession as an entrepreneur in his previous profile and was first chosen in 2016. He received some national attention earlier this month as a sponsor of a not very serious bill that would have designated “Trump Disorder Syndrome” Like a mental illness.
