House Republican Leadership calls for Manweller's resignation

In light of recent allegations of statutory rape levied earlier today against Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Cle Elum, and detailed in an extensive report by the Northwest News Network, state House Republican Leadership has called on Manweller to resign from his position in the legislature.

“I am deeply saddened and disappointed by the story shared in the well-documented piece from the NW News Network,” said House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, in a statement Friday. “What Matt did was wrong. Our Leadership team has asked Matt to resign from his position as state representative.”

In an interview with N3’s Austin Jenkins, a former high school student of Manweller’s claimed that she had begun a sexual relationship with Manweller when she was 17 and he was ten years her senior, shortly after she had graduated from her Idaho high school.

This is the second former high school student of Manweller’s to claim impropriety after they had graduated. The first was his ex-wife, OraLynne Reeve, who also claims she was 17 when she began a relationship with Manweller after she graduated from her Utah high school.

The new accuser told N3 that she had been dating Manweller when he met Reeve, and that they maintained contact after Manweller and Reeve were married. Reeve corroborated this story with N3.

This is only the latest in a string of accusations of sexual misconduct by Manweller. Central Washington University fired him from a tenured teaching position after an independent investigation found evidence of impropriety, including accusations from multiple students that that Manweller had offered to trade sex for grades.

Manweller has previously denied any wrongdoing and is suing CWU for wrongful termination and is seeking over $2 million in damages.

Manweller has also been accused of sexual harassment by a previous legislative staffer.

After allegations from CWU students and the legislative staffer became public, Manweller was stripped of his role as the top Republican member on the House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee and resigned from a House Republican leadership position in December after then-House Minority Leader Dan Kristiansen called on Manweller to step down.

Despite similar allegations against Manweller made public previously, state House Republican Leadership has declined until now to call on the lawmaker to resign from the legislature.

“Matt was elected to his position as state representative,” Wilcox said in a statement mid-August. “Voters decide who represents them.”

The allegations raised today, then, appeared to be the last straw for House Republicans.

“Our entire caucus will discuss this issue early next week,” Wilcox said in a statement Friday.

Manweller declined to comment for this story but said he would have a statement prepared Monday afternoon.