BOISE, Idaho — The statehouse intern who was raped by former Idaho lawmaker Aaron von Ehlinger in 2021 dismissed her lawsuit against him and other former lawmaker Priscilla Giddings because continuing the legal process would only entail more harassment from von Ehlinger supporters, she said.
The woman, known as Jane Doe, voluntarily dismissed the federal lawsuit on June 5 effectively ending any legal action against the two.
KTVB does not name survivors of sexual assault.
The suit was filed because Doe claimed she was being doxxed and harassed after Giddings shared a post from a right-wing website onto her official Facebook page, exposing Doe's identity in April of 2021. Doe said in the lawsuit this violated her First Amendment rights.
Almost exactly one year later, Von Ehlinger was found guilty of raping Doe after he took her out to dinner and back to his apartment. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Doe told KTVB via phone call that the assault, trial and lawsuit has taken "so much time and energy" of her life, and it would call for more years of going to court and dealing with the re-traumatization of the assault. She wants to move on, she said.
"If I was going forward with the lawsuit, people would have a whole posse trying to get pieces of my life. I'm done with the harassment," Doe said. "This case has affected my relationships, affected the way I go about my life. I'd rather invest my time in my life."
Currently, she is trying to heal herself, Doe said. She wants people to have more awareness of those who are survivors of sexual assault, and is working towards sharing her experiences with others.
"What happened to me is so irrelevant to who I am. There is so much more to me," Doe said. "You light your own fire in spite of everybody else."
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