ST. PAUL, Minn. — Federal prosecutors are trying to block the release of a former Minnesota state senator who resigned after he was charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution, leveling fresh allegations that he tried to obstruct the FBI’s investigation from jail and lied to court personnel when he said he didn’t have a gun at his apartment.
Prosecutors asked the court in a filing Sunday for a quick ruling that Justin Eichorn be kept in jail instead of released to a halfway house as scheduled on Tuesday.
Eichorn’s new attorneys, whose hiring was first noted in a court filing Sunday, did not immediately reply to voicemails and emails from The Associated Press seeking comment on Monday. The 40-year-old former Republican lawmaker from Grand Rapids has not publicly commented since his arrest during a sting operation in Bloomington last Monday. He was charged in federal court last Wednesday with attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution, a felony that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.
In their motion to reopen a detention hearing that was held Thursday, prosecutors said they learned afterward that he had several phone calls in jail with a Grand Rapids woman — identified only as Individual A but described as a close associate — and arranged with her to retrieve a computer and other items from the St. Paul apartment where he lived alone during legislative sessions. They said both had been warned that the call was not private and would be recorded.
According to Eichorn’s profile, which was removed from the Senate website last week, he is married with four children.
“Eichorn’s conduct evidences a willingness to conceal material facts from the Court and to do so at the expense of public safety,” prosecutors wrote. “Even more concerning, given his and Individual A’s prompt attempt to clear out the St. Paul apartment, is the possibility that Eichorn lied because he thought his associate could clear out the apartment before pretrial services or law enforcement could get there.”
By the time the woman got to his apartment around 9:50 a.m. Friday, the motion said, FBI agents had already secured the unit in preparation for a search. She asked them whether she could go in to retrieve a computer that she said 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 declined.
The search warrant, according to the filing, authorized the FBI to look for evidence related to the enticement of a minor charge, as well as evidence of actual or attempted production, receipt, distribution or possession of child sexual abuse images.
During the search, agents found a red computer-type bag on the counter that contained $1,000 in cash, a handgun and ammunition, a laptop computer, an SD memory card, an iPhone and several of Eichorn’s Senate business cards, prosecutors said.
They added that the iPhone appeared to have been reset to its factory settings, which can erase all content on the device. While an initial forensic analysis suggested that the phone may have been reset before Eichorn’s arrest, they said, the analysis isn’t complete and the timing of the reset hasn’t been confirmed.
One of the conditions for Eichorn’s release to a halfway house was that he not possess firearms. But prosecutors allege he deliberately lied when he told a pretrial services officer after his first court appearance last Thursday that he had no firearm in his apartment.
Prosecutors also argued that Eichorn should remain jailed because the text messages that he exchanged leading up to his arrest with an undercover officer who purported to be a 17-year-old girl demonstrated his “clear familiarity with soliciting commercial sex from minors,” saying they “depict someone who knows the lingo of the trade.” When officers arrested him, they seized two cellphones found in his truck, an unopened condom and $129 in cash.
“Eichorn’s messages and conduct reveal an experienced operator,” they wrote. “His pretrial release brings with it a real risk that he would attempt to victimize other minors in the community.”
Eichorn listed his profession as entrepreneur on his former profile and was first elected in 2016. He got some national attention earlier this month as one sponsor of a not-very-serious bill that would have designated “Trump derangement syndrome” as a mental illness.
