Name: Idaho state senator demands retraction after 'malicious' mailer sent to voters
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Idaho state senator demands retraction after 'malicious' mailer sent to voters

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Breaking NewsRepublican Sen. Fred Martin of Boise is asking the "Freedom Man" PAC to retract a mailer sent out to voters.7:35 PM MDT October 6, 2020BOISE, Idaho — People living in West Boise received a political mailer targeting District 15 Senator Fred Martin late last week.The mailer, sent by the PAC, labels the incumbent Republican senator who is up for re-election next month, as creepy and includes excerpts from two Boise Police reports involving Martin.&nbsp;Those reports stem from 2012 and 2014 when Martin was questioned about visiting Centennial High School at night after school hours. Martin was never charged with anything relating to those reports.The excerpts on the mailer from police reports detail a 2012 allegation that Martin went into a girls' bathroom inside the high school. The mailer is also posted online.Boise Police confirms that police reports from and posted on the PAC's website are authentic.&nbsp;Sen. Martin’s attorney Dave Leroy says the mailer is a falsehood created and issued with malice.“The allegations and the attack leave out entirely the context that the senator went to see the end of evening basketball games where his niece, as a visiting basketball player, was in the building at a game," Leroy said. "The loss of that context to suggest that he is inappropriately in or around a high school in the evening is where this attack begins to create falsehoods."Martin said in a 2012 interview with police he did not go into the bathroom but merely looked in to find someone to ask about the score of the basketball game. In the report, an unnamed custodian at the school says he saw Martin behind a privacy wall inside the bathroom.The 2012 police report was filed as informational only.In 2014, Martin was questioned by police after being seen at Centennial High School late at night.An investigator in a 2014 report said, based on the 2012 report he had at the time, he believed it was possible Martin had hidden a recording device inside the school.That quote was included in the mailer; however, the mailer leaves out the result of that investigation.Leroy says no device or any wrongdoing was ever found.“The police were very aggressive in checking to see if there was any kind of issue, or allegation, or crime committed by anyone who was in or around that restroom after hours," he said. "The senator denied that it was him and they found no such device."Martin told police in 2014 he was notified by two people that he was under investigation in relation to the 2012 incident. He had previously thought the matter was complete. Martin told police he went to the school in 2014 to check on claims made against him in the 2012 report.One of those claims is included on the mailer, saying Martin was seen hiding under a tree outside the school in 2012. A custodian at the school told investigators she saw Martin hiding under a tree and he startled her. Martin maintains he did no such thing.The 2014 report concluded there was suspicious behavior, and inconsistent statements made, but no criminal activity found. Leroy points out that final finding is not included in the mailer.“To fail to put in the bottom line of the report which says that the police officer identified no criminal activity that was prosecutable, and the investigation would be closed is, of course, malicious and false,” he said.Leroy sent a letter to the Freedom Man PAC demanding a retraction and warning saying the mailer and information online is defamatory.According to Leroy, this is clearly a malicious attack by the Freedom Man PAC ahead of the election.“One of the problems when you make a personal attack against a politician, particularly late in a campaign, is there are very few opportunities to correct those allegations," he said. "What we did demand was that they remove the offending material from their website and that they send out a second mailer to each and every person that got the original mailer, apologizing and retracting the false allegations."On Tuesday, Martin’s opponent in his District 15 senate race - Democrat Rick Just - issued a statement to make it clear his campaign was not involved in the mailer.“I want to reiterate that Senator Martin isn’t suing me or my campaign. He knows we had nothing to do with it,” Just said. “Idaho voters don’t benefit from name-calling and mudslinging campaigns.”KTVB reached out to the Freedom Man PAC for comment on the story Tuesday morning, but no response was provided.See all of our latest political coverage in our&nbsp;:Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings.No ThanksAllow

Breaking NewsRepublican Sen. Fred Martin of Boise is asking the "Freedom Man" PAC to retract a mailer sent out to voters.7:35 PM MDT October 6, 2020BOISE, Idaho — People living in West Boise received a political mailer targeting District 15 Senator Fred Martin late last week.The mailer, sent by the PAC, labels the incumbent Republican senator who is up for re-election next month, as creepy and includes excerpts from two Boise Police reports involving Martin.&nbsp;Those reports stem from 2012 and 2014 when Martin was questioned about visiting Centennial High School at night after school...

Idaho state senator demands retraction after 'malicious' mailer sent to voters

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