PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Senate Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion had its first meeting this evening (Monday), taking an oath and setting up procedures.
The meeting lasted just over seven minutes.
The committee will hear testimony about a complaint filed against Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller by a Legislative Research Council staffer last week.
Republican Sen. David Wheeler from Huron, the committee’s chair, said he hoped to balance the due process rights of Sen. Frye-Mueller, the privacy rights of the employee bringing the complaint, thoroughness, speediness, and the reputation of the Senate.
Committee members had to take an additional oath that they would act impartially.
The hearings will be open to the public except when the state employee testifies.
Then, only the employee, their counsel, Sen. Frye-Mueller, their counsel, and any Senator will meet in executive session.
Sen. Wheeler said the committee would issue a redacted transcript of such a hearing.
He also said a redacted copy of the complaint and other documents would be open to the public on the LRC website.
The select committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5 p.m. (CT).
The complaint from the staff member alleges that Frye-Mueller and her husband Mike Mueller entered her office on January 24 to discuss a piece of legislation that was being drafted. The staffer called the presence of the lawmaker’s spouse “unusual.”
According to the statement, the staffer had been told multiple times by Mueller that he was “very protective of his wife” and that she should “be careful of what I say or do in his presence.” The staff member reported feeling uncomfortable.
The conversation quickly turned from the drafted bill to the staff member’s child and whether he was vaccinated.
“I told her ‘yes.’ Without allowing me to elaborate further, she proceeded to point her finger at me and aggressively say that this will cause him issues,” the statement alleges. Frye-Mueller then allegedly told the staff member that her baby could “get down syndrome, or autism” and that he will “die from those vaccines.”
The conversation then turned to whether the staff member was breastfeeding to which she said no, she was formula feeding.
“I was told by Senator Frye-Mueller that my husband could ‘suck on my breasts’ to get milk to come in. She indicated ‘a good time for that is at night.’ She proceed to provide hand gestures to her chest area and motion to her husband to see if he agreed. He smiled and nodded,” the staff member alleged.
The suspended senator then became more “emotional and aggressive,” the staffer said while continuing to tell her that she cannot let her child be vaccinated. The staff member then told Frye-Mueller that she would think about what she had said, “in the hope that it would end the conversation and not upset her any further.”
