Republican Justin Eichorn, within hours of abandoning his seat in the Minnesota Senate, arrived in federal court Thursday afternoon on allegations he solicited prostitution from a Bloomington police detective posing as a 17-year-old girl.
The 40-year-old husband and father of four from Grand Rapids was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.
Eichorn entered the courtroom from a side door under guard and wearing a black polo shirt and blue jeans. He was represented by federal public defender Aaron Morrison but told the court he intends to retain private counsel.
Judge Shannon Elkins ordered that Eichorn be released to a halfway house, but that he would remain jailed until a bed was available. Conditions included a prohibition on contact with unaccompanied minors, and a restriction on leaving the state. Eichorn did not speak other than to confirm that he understood the charges against him.
His next preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Eichorn resigned from the Senate late Thursday morning. He submitted his letter of resignation, effective immediately, less than an hour before the Senate was set to take an unprecedented vote to expel him from the chamber.
Senate Republicans were ready to bring forward the motion, and DFLers said they would join them in voting for Eichorn's expulsion.
Eichorn was arrested Monday as part of an undercover operation in Bloomington that also snared six other men.
He was initially charged in Hennepin County District Court with a felony count of soliciting prostitution from a minor over the age of 16. That criminal complaint alleged he showed up with a condom and enough cash to pay for what he believed would be 30 minutes of sex.
Moments after the state filed its case, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced it had also charged Eichorn. As is typical, the state case was dismissed in favor of the federal prosecution.
According to charges in both courts and police:
Eichorn sent a text message to a phone number in an online ad on March 11 and arranged to meet a person he believed was a 17-year-old girl near the 8300 block of Normandale Boulevard, not far from public parks and hotels. He arrived in a pickup truck and was arrested without incident outside his vehicle by uniformed police about 5:45 p.m. Monday.
Police searched his pickup truck and seized two cellphones, a condom in the driver's side door and $129 in cash. Law enforcement intends to search the phones for further evidence.
Eichorn is the second Minnesota lawmaker to face felony charges this year. Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, is charged with two felonies in a break-in at the Detroit Lakes home her late father shared with her stepmother. She has pleaded not guilty to first-degree burglary and possession of burglary or theft tools.
Republicans in the Senate have filed ethics complaints tied to the alleged burglary and to Mitchell's vote in January on a motion connected to a GOP effort to expel her. That effort failed to gain traction in the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct last week.
Ryan Faircloth and Allison Kite of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.
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