Lawsuit filed against von Ehlinger, Giddings

The woman who was raped by former Idaho lawmaker Aaron von Ehlinger has filed a federal lawsuit against him and another former legislator, Priscilla Giddings, for allegedly violating her First Amendment rights.

Von Ehlinger was sentenced to 20 years in prison in August 2022 for raping a 19-year-old woman known as Jane Doe in 2021, when he was 39. Prosecutors said the former lawmaker invited the statehouse intern to dinner and then back to his Boise apartment, where he sexually assaulted her.

Von Ehlinger was subject to an ethics hearing by the legislature in April 2021 to determine if he exhibited “conduct unbecoming” by his actions toward a 19-year-old intern. Doe testified at this ethics hearing in an emotional speech behind a sweeping black curtain for privacy concerns. She was later followed out of the statehouse and berated by von Ehlinger supporters.

The committee voted to expel von Ehlinger for his conduct, but he resigned instead.

The federal lawsuit brought by Doe, which was filed on Wednesday, says Giddings, who was a House representative from White Bird before losing her election for lieutenant governor in 2022, was communicating with von Ehlinger throughout the committee’s investigation, altering his news releases about Doe and the assault accusations.

In April 2021 Giddings later re-posted an article from a right-wing website onto her official Facebook page and her official legislative newsletters with pictures of Doe, effectively exposing her identity. Giddings later denied posting the picture of Doe in the ethics hearing.

The post leaked other personal information about her, causing local advocacy groups to call for the Legislature to hold Giddings accountable and remove her from leadership roles. The ACLU wrote in a former post, “Representative Giddings doxxed 19-year-old intern Jane Doe, publicly sharing the survivor’s name and photo with constituents using her state email address and server. ... This is unacceptable and she must be held accountable.”

The complaint also says that Giddings repeatedly told Idaho State Police troopers in the statehouse that Doe was “under the influence of drugs” and that she believed Doe violated portions of Idaho law, to which she sent the trooper an official statement and a report was filed.

“Upon information and belief, other representatives aligned with Giddings and von Ehlinger were taking steps in furtherance of attempting to harass, or cause others to harass, Ms. Doe and to otherwise discourage her from cooperating with the Ethics Committee and with law enforcement,” the complaint says. It claims Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, tried to gain information about Doe’s statements to police and that former Rep. Christy Zito suggested Doe made a “false report.”

In a previous interview with the Idaho Press, Doe said, “I’ve been invited to some of their houses. I was very friendly. They loved me. I was a friend to all. I was really sad to see that nobody cared when it happened. It seemed like I was kind of shunned. ... I was the one that was being dragged, threatened and pushed away.”

In May 2021, Giddings was accused of conduct unbecoming for making defamatory statements about Doe. Giddings was later censured by the committee because they found probable cause of her actions.

However, the complaint says, Giddings continued to refer to Doe as “a tramp” and continued to spread malicious statements about her to other legislators.

The complaint states the two former lawmaker’s actions “violated a clearly established right to not be harassed because of sex/gender and/or as a female survivor reporting sexual assault. A reasonable official should have known about this right.”

Doe suffered damages to her reputation and emotional distress when she was doxxed, entitling her to punitive damages, the lawsuit says. She demands a jury trial in the matter.

Doe had a previous lawsuit against the state, which was dismissed with prejudice on Nov. 23, 2022.

This story was originally published by KTVB.com of Boise. The original story can be read at bit.ly/3YH8i17.