GOP lawmaker charged in Oregon Capitol protest has COVID

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker who authorities say let violent protesters into the Oregon Capitol in December says he is ill with COVID-19.

"I have a really bad case of COVID, and I’m kind of on the mend a little bit,” Rep. Mike Nearman said on a conservative radio talk show.

Another Republican lawmaker, who on the same day the Oregon Capitol was breached ripped off his mask on the Senate floor to protest coronavirus restrictions, says he has been absent from the Senate because his father tested positive for COVID-19.

Sen. Dallas Heard, who is also chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, told Senate leadership that he was exposed to the virus on April 25, that his father lives with him and that he must go into quarantine, the Salem Statesman Journal reported Friday.

Nearman faces a hearing Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court on charges of official misconduct in the first degree and criminal trespass in the second degree for the Dec. 21 breach of the state Capitol by people protesting coronavirus restrictions. Both are misdemeanors, but they carry possible jail time.

Nearman said this week on the Lars Larson Show that he will seek a jury trial.

“The Oregon State Police spent over four months investigating me. ... Do you think these guys have anything better to do?” Nearman said.

Nearman, who is from the town of Independence near Salem, did not further discuss having COVID-19. On April 20, the Oregon House of Representatives canceled all floor sessions for that week after someone at the Capitol was diagnosed with COVID-19 and may have exposed people in the chamber.

Despite having gotten sick, Nearman told Larson that mask wearing, shutdowns and other edicts should be voluntary.

“Let’s set up some options where people have freedom to do what they...