Years after rape by Idaho legislator, Jane Doe speaks out — to 4 million people

The first time the public heard Jane Doe’s voice was from behind a thin piece of black cloth during an ethics hearing at the Idaho Statehouse.

That curtain, the anonymity, taking the tunnels into the building — it was all meant to keep her identity as much a secret as possible as she testified about what she said was a sexual attack by a then-Republican legislator.

Despite the lawmaker, Aaron von Ehlinger, being found guilty, nothing about how that hearing or the subsequent criminal trial played out was on Doe’s terms. She was doxxed, chased through the halls of the Capitol and stalked at her home.

Two years later, Doe decided to tell her story in her own way.

On May 26, her voice could be heard across the country on an episode of “This American Life,” the mega-popular radio program and podcast that reaches more than 4.4 million people each week. The 74-minute episode charted at No. 1 in Apple podcasts, according to analytic website Chartable.

Doe recounted her time as a 19-year-old legislative intern in 2021, when she was a victim of von Ehlinger, who forced her to perform oral sex at his Boise apartment after they had dinner. The Idaho Ethics and House Policy Committee found von Ehlinger guilty of conduct unbecoming a legislator, and he resigned before a vote was taken to expel him.

A 12-person jury found him guilty of rape last August, and a judge sentenced him to up to 20 years in prison.

“This American Life,” known for its compelling first-person stories, allowed Doe to walk the audience through the events as she experienced them. The Idaho Statesman looked at the details revealed in the show, including some new information.

Who is Jane Doe?

In the episode, Doe, who continued to use her pseudonym, became a three-dimensional person to the public for the first time as she shared details about her life.

The 21-year-old Hispanic, multigenerational Idahoan has a membership at a local trampoline gym, teases her siblings with fart jokes and “loves nerding out about the state Legislature.”

She became the first teenage mother to work at the Legislature as part of the Idaho State Page Program, an experience she loved so much that she returned as an intern the following year.

“I felt like I was walking on gold,” Doe said on the episode. “Literally (of) my entire family, I’m the first one to ever work for the government.”

Doe said she became interested in government after learning about the criminal justice system as a domestic violence shelter volunteer. She eventually began working the night shift at the shelter for $8 an hour while interning at the Capitol.

It was a sense of duty to domestic violence survivors, she said on the show, that convinced her to come forward about von Ehlinger, despite fearing that doing so would ruin her life.

“I’m reporting that because that’s what a good Samaritan does,” Doe said. “That’s what you do. That’s what you’re supposed to do. And so — being a domestic violence, sexual assault advocate myself — what would I be telling a different 19-year-old who got assaulted by a legislator?”

Jane Doe becomes sexual assault test case

Doe didn’t know when she told her Capitol supervisor about the rape that she would end up serving as a test case for the Legislature’s new sexual assault reporting guidelines.

Under those guidelines, her supervisor was required to pass the report to higher-ups, according to “This American Life.”

The attorney general’s office notified police while the House of Representatives launched an ethics committee investigation headed by Rep. Sage Dixon. The show pointed out that Dixon, a Republican representative from Ponderay who runs an electrical contracting business, had no training on how to conduct a sexual assault investigation.

“This American Life” obtained a transcript of an interview in which Doe was asked to tell the committee members privately what happened. When she got to the part about von Ehlinger “climbing on top of her,” Dixon stopped her, saying that “maybe the committee’s getting uncomfortable, too,” according to the show.

“You made me relive a horrible experience and just tell me you’re uncomfortable by it,” Doe said on the show. “I was so hurt.”

For the public hearing, Doe’s attorneys requested that she be able to testify remotely and that her voice be disguised. The AG’s office denied the request. Dixon told “This American Life” that he didn’t know about those requests and would have been open to them. In retrospect, he didn’t think having her testify publicly was worth the trauma it caused.

“I’m very sorry if we increased that trauma, or that we did, because it never was our intent,” Dixon said. “I know each one of those members feels very strongly that she was wronged and wanted to protect her, but just due to our inexperience, things didn’t come out maybe as cleanly as they could have.”

After the hearing, Doe left her Capitol internship and took a job cleaning homes. She started failing college classes, lost 20 pounds and began having panic attacks, she said. People would show up to harass her at her apartment, and others would recognize her name in public and ask whether she was Jane Doe.

Her identity was supposed to remain anonymous, but it became somewhat public after von Ehlinger’s lawyer sent it to reporters and far-right outlet Redoubt News published it. Rep. Priscilla Giddings, a far-right ally of von Ehlinger’s, then shared that article on social media and in an email newsletter, in which she called Doe a “honey trap” who was part of a “liberal smear job” in a “#MeToo witch hunt.”

That act got Giddings removed from a legislative committee in November 2021 after she faced an ethics review. Jane Doe eventually sued Giddings, von Ehlinger and the Legislature. The suit against the Legislature was dismissed after a settlement. Doe recently dropped her lawsuit against Giddings and von Ehlinger as well, telling KTVB that she feared it would take too high of an emotional toll.

“Nobody would talk to me. Nobody would even look at me in the eye anymore,” Doe said, referring to her time still working after the sexual assault. “I went from smiling and waving to everybody to nobody would look at me. And so then that’s when I was really like, dang, they hate me. Like everybody in that Statehouse just hates me.”

In the intervening years, the Idaho Legislature has not created any new sexual assault investigation procedures, sexual harassment policies or anti-fraternization rules, according to the show.

“This American Life” said the ethics committee’s only significant change afterward was to strengthen confidentiality protections so “anyone who releases a victim’s name could face consequences.” The committee has also created a new rule that would allow the Legislature to cover the legal fees of legislators accused of sexual misconduct.

Hearings, trial cause distress

The ethics and criminal hearings were so traumatic for Doe that she said she had thoughts of suicide.

When Doe stood up to leave the ethics hearing, she was supposed to exit through a private door. In her distress, she pushed through the wrong one and found herself in a public hallway. She screamed and started running, pursued by von Ehlinger supporters and a local KBOI reporter, all filming her.

“I broke. I broke. I screamed. I screamed a lot,” Doe said. “Like screaming how much I was going to kill myself. All I wanted to do was get to the top of the building.”

She said she tried to get to the rotunda balcony to throw herself off it. Her lawyers blocked her, and she collapsed to the ground.

The criminal trial was also difficult. On the stand, Doe could barely speak. Finally, she pushed her chair back and once again ran out of the room. She ran across Front Street, then Myrtle, she said, as she tried to get to a bridge to jump.

She said police caught up with her and brought her to the ground.

“It was like nine different officers on me, and I was just on the floor,” Doe said. “I was just screaming and hitting my head over and over.”

As this was happening, she noticed her attorney nearby on his hands and knees, crying. Doe said the sight was painful enough that she stopped for a moment.

“During this brief pause, the police put a full body restraint wrap, a helmet and handcuffs on Jane,” Miki Meek, the episode’s host, said on the show. “They put her in a squad car and transferred her to a hospital for psychiatric care. She spent three days there.”

Doe dreams of future in politics

Doe explained to “This American Life” that she has come a long way. She’s been working at her stepfather’s plumbing company but has recently revived her dream of going into politics.

She said she hopes to start by getting on a PTA and then City Council, and finally, state government.

“I’m going to be a lawmaker,” Doe said. “I will never have shame walking into that building anymore. Going forward, hell no. Hell no. I’m a multigeneration Idahoan. My mother is here. My siblings are here. My son is here. I’m here. No way you’re going to oust me. I pay my taxes. This is our building.”