Bodycam Footage Shows North Dakota Republican Using Homophobic Slurs During DUI Stop

A Williston police officer wrote that North Dakota state Rep. Nico Rios “was verbally abusive, homophobic, racially abusive and discriminatory” toward him.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota lawmaker who serves on a panel that handles law enforcement legislation made homophobic and anti-migrant remarks to a police officer who arrested him on a charge of driving drunk, body camera footage shows.

Republican state Rep. Nico Rios of Williston was also charged with refusing to provide a chemical test. Both that and the drunken driving charge are misdemeanors under state law. Rios is scheduled for a Feb. 5 pretrial conference in municipal court.

Williston police pulled him over on Dec. 15 for failing to maintain his lane, according to an officer’s report. The officer wrote that Rios “was verbally abusive, homophobic, racially abusive and discriminatory” toward him “for the entire duration of the incident following road side testing.”

The homophobic slurs can be heard in body camera footage requested by and provided to The Associated Press. In the recording, Rios also said he would call the North Dakota attorney general about the situation. He told the officers they would “regret picking on me because you don’t know who ... I am.”

He also cursed while riding in the patrol car, and questioned the officer’s English accent, asking him, “How many of your ... friends and family members have been ... brutalized and terrorized by ... migrants?” Forum News Service first reported on Rios’ remarks.