Page Groping Moves to State Level...South Dakota Dem Accused (1 Viewer)

[DadsDream]

So, now the national trend is moving down to the state level. Have you groped a page today?

Lawyers for a South Dakota state senator got a sexual misconduct investigation suppressed until he got re-elected. Now, the South Dakota Supreme Court has ruled against him and the investigation and a committee hearing and full state senate vote are back on the table.

Senate readies for page-scandal hearing
By Chet Brokaw, The Associated Press

PIERRE — As a special South Dakota Senate committee prepares to start an unprecedented investigation into allegations that Sen. Dan Sutton engaged in sexual misconduct with an 18-year-old page, the panel’s chairman said the members don’t relish the task.

“It continues to be a sense of duty and responsibility,” said Senate Republican Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls. “I don’t think anybody is looking forward to it.”

This week’s hearings will mark the first time either the House or Senate has conducted such an investigation of one of its members.

Officials expect the committee will meet Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It plans to begin hearing evidence about 30 minutes after the Senate finishes its afternoon session, take a dinner break and continue until about 9 p.m.

 

[DadsDream]

“He crawled into the same bed as his page, Austin Wiese,” McMahon said. “He didn’t sleep on the hide-a-bed. He didn’t ask Austin Wiese to sleep on the hide-a-bed … and he told you that was appropriate.”

Wiese had testified he didn’t know the couch was a hide-a-bed.

Sutton hearing reaches an end
Bill Harlan, Journal staff

PIERRE — A special South Dakota Senate committee investigating whether Sen. Dan Sutton groped a male legislative page will make its recommendation to the full Senate today.

Rapid City attorney Patrick Duffy, representing Sutton, on Thursday urged the committee to exonerate the senator, who has been in the news for months. “His good name should be restored, and we all know that won’t happen,” Duffy said. “But think. Think.”

Sioux Falls attorney Jim McMahon, representing the Senate as a sort of prosecutor, reminded the nine senators that both sides agree on one element in the case — that Sutton and Wiese shared a Fort Pierre motel room and a king-size bed on the nights of Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 last year, when Wiese was beginning a one-week stint as a page.

READ MORE
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/01/26/news/top/news00h_sutton.txt

 

[dookie]

If this would have happened in the military this person would have been hung.Its time to hold these polititions to a higher standard like the UCMJ.We serve this country like they do but they get away with almost everything.