Lawmakers are forming a special commission to investigate a state lawmaker for alleged sexual contact with a legislative intern during previous sessions.
House Majority Leader Lee Qualm says Representative Mathew Wollmann admitted to engaging in consensual sexual contact with an intern in 2015 and 2016.
Speaker of the House Mark Mickelson says a committee will look into whether inappropriate conduct took place and whether to impose a penalty on Wollmann.
“The rules require the speaker to form a 9-member committee, five from the majority party and four from the minority party,” Mickelson says. “I will do that after consultation with the majority leader and the minority leader, which I will do after session today and will appoint that committee tomorrow during session.”
Earlier in the session a committee voted down a rules change that would have explicitly barred legislators from sexual contact with legislative interns and pages. The committee sited current rules as sufficient.