Suspended South Dakota State Senator Julie Frye-Mueller of Rapid City has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Pierre asking that she be reinstated and the Senate prevented from taking any further action against her.
The suit says the expulsion violated the Senate’s own rules, and names Senator Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown as a defendant in his official role as Senate President Pro Tem.
Frye-Mueller, whose district includes Fall River County, says in the lawsuit that she was denied due process because she was given no notice before being suspended, which she argues has disenfranchised the voters in District 30.
Her attorney, former State Speaker of the House Steve Haugaard of Sioux Falls, asked the court for expedited proceedings with a ruling as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion named for the Frye-Mueller case met for the first time yesterday, carried live on South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
After the session, chairman David Wheeler said he will run the proceedings fairly and efficiently, balancing due process considerations, protection of the employee, public transparency, representation, and institutional integrity.
Frye-Mueller issued a statement Saturday describing the allegations as being based on a misunderstanding she had with a woman she considered a friend and who had confided intimate and personal details to her about a maternal issue.
Senate leaders yesterday released the staffer’s full statement in which she wrote that Frye-Mueller had had “aggressively” told her that her baby could get down syndrome or autism or even die from childhood vaccines.
The staffer also wrote that Frye-Mueller gave her “unsolicited” advice on breast-feeding.
The staffer’s statement was placed in the committee record along with a Jan 10th letter of guidelines to lawmakers outlining how and when they can interact with staff from the Legislative Research Council.