Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to require former Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn to be detained until his trial on charges of attempting to solicit a minor for prostitution.
Eichorn, a Republican from Grand Rapids, resigned from the Minnesota Senate last week after he was busted in an underage prostitution sting operation. He’s facing federal charges of attempting to coerce and entice a minor to engage in prostitution.
He was set to be released to a halfway house as soon as a bed opens up while he awaits trial. However, in a motion filed Sunday, prosecutors said Eichorn lied to the court about his access to firearms and “apparently orchestrated an effort to retrieve a computer from his St. Paul apartment to deprive investigators of the opportunity to examine it.”
Additionally, prosecutors said FBI agents discovered that one of Eichorn’s iPhones was in a “factory reset” condition, “suggesting that someone with access to the phone’s accounts attempted to wipe it.”
According to prosecutors, Eichorn said he can reside alone at his rental apartment in St. Paul upon his release and that there “was no firearm in the St. Paul apartment.”
“Eichorn told this Court—through pretrial services—that he does not have any firearms in his St. Paul apartment. He then proposed that, should he be released, he could reside in that very apartment. He lied,” they wrote in Sunday’s motion.
The document also reveals that the government listened in on jail calls between Eichorn and “a close, known associate of his,” identified in the motion as Individual A.
FBI agents encountered this individual, who resides in Grand Rapids, outside of Eichorn’s St. Paul apartment on March 21 before executing a search warrant.
“FBI agents told her she could not enter, but Individual A asked whether she could retrieve a computer from the apartment, which she said was used for her business,” the motion explains.
During the execution of the search warrant, FBI agents found a red bag sitting on a counter in the apartment.
“Inside the bag, officers found $1,000 in cash, a handgun and ammunition, a laptop computer, an SD memory card, an Apple iPhone, and several of Eichorn’s state Senate business cards. Agents found other devices in the apartment, but the laptop found inside the red bag was the only computer. The Apple iPhone found in the red bag appeared to have been reset to factory settings, which can cause all content on the phone to [be] erased,” the document says.
Federal prosecutors are now concerned that Eichorn “may be attempting to obstruct the ongoing investigation into his conduct.”
“[In] the midst of these seismic events in his life, one of his and Individual A’s top priorities was the retrieval of a laptop computer from Eichorn’s apartment, some three hours from his family home. To be clear, the government does not yet know what, if any, evidence may be found on that device. But these events seriously trouble the government and appear plainly to be obstructive,” they wrote.
They said his release poses a flight risk and would be a danger to the community.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges held a press conference Monday morning to discuss the operation that resulted in Eichorn’s arrest. Chief Hodges said 14 men were arrested in the operation and they may refer additional cases to federal authorities.
“We’re still working with our federal partners on some of these cases because, quite frankly, just locally we cannot have these people getting out of jail and continuing to repeat these same crimes,” he said.
“The language that he used is indicative of someone who this is not their first time,” Hodges added, referring to Eichorn.
He said Bloomington police prioritize these investigations because of the large volume of hotel rooms in the city–the most in the state–and its close proximity to the airport.
“We’re just not going to tolerate this,” he said.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
