GOP lawmaker with perfect 'pro-life' rating once assaulted a minor

Wisconsin state Rep. Dale Kooyenga was once involved in physically assaulting a minor, resulting in a conviction. Despite this history, he has the strong backing of anti-choice organizations like Wisconsin Right to Life, which purports to be pro-family.

Kooyenga has a 100 percent rating from the anti-abortion organization, which claims on their website that they believe “each human life is inherently valuable from fertilization to natural death.”

But in 2000, Kooyenga did not appear to have that same level of interest in the young man he beat up.

A court complaint filed against Kooyenga by the state details the unsettling details of the incident. Kooyenga, who was then 21, was accused by police of engaging in “disorderly conduct,” which they classified as a “Class B Misdemeanor.”

The altercation in question happened between Kooyenga and a 17-year-old boy. According to the complaint, when the boy said he did not want to return to a party at Kooyenga’s residence, it “resulted in Dale tackling and punching him.”

Kooyenga told the officer that the boy was supposed to be at a “religious retreat” in Indiana but claimed to have missed the bus, and now had no adult supervision, as his parents were in Europe.

Kooyenga told the boy he had to come back to his house to determine “what sort of placement to make” for him, as he now had no adult supervision. The boy refused.

“Dale said he turned and chased [him] down and tackled him to the ground and struck him twice and then told him to get in the car,” the complaint states.

The teen returned to Kooyenga’s party, where he nearly fell from a second story balcony when Kooyenga reportedly tackled him. According to the report, the boy “was never physical back towards Dale.”

After the incident, the prosecutor reduced the charge, and Kooyenga pleaded guilty to non-criminal disorderly conduct.

Kooyenga is now running for a seat in the state Senate and has been plagued with stories about his past.

Despite his guilty plea for a violent act, he continues to tout his support for anti-choice legislation and ironically notes he will “fight” for his position.

Kooyenga never acknowledges in his official materials the assault charge and plea that lurk in his past.