NEBRASKA LAWMAKER SAYS HE IS BEING CALLED ON TO RESIGN FOR 'A BAD PUN'

LINCOLN - The Nebraska lawmaker who allegedly groped a legislative staff member this year said he is facing calls to resign over what he described as a joke gone wrong. 

Sen. Dan McKeon of Amherst was cited by the Nebraska State Patrol for public indecency last week following an investigation into the May 29 incident. According to the State Patrol, the 59-year-old lawmaker "made inappropriate contact" with a female staff member over her clothes at the Legislature's sine die party for senators and others. The case was turned over to Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon and scheduled for a Dec. 10 hearing.

"Earlier this year, at the end-of-session gathering, Senator McKeon made a single remark — a joke — to a staff member about her planned trip and hoping she and her husband would receive a 'Hawaiian lei,' or words to that effect," Pirsch said. "And then he patted her on the back," Pirsch said the comment was made in jest and "nothing about his action was in any way sexually charged or lewd," which courts have defined as inciting "sensual desire or imagination."

Wishing the staff member a "Hawaiian lei" was a bad joke, even cliché, but not "objectively lewd conduct," Pirsch added. Once McKeon learned the staff member "had been offended by the comment," he reached out and wrote an apology note in July.
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