A Republican rep filmed hurling homophobic slurs during a December DUI stop has avoided jail time, court records show.
North Dakota’s Nico Rios, 35, was instead handed a year of unsupervised probation and a fine of $1,000, after pleading guilty to drunk driving on January 8.
The freshman out of Williston, however, aired no plans to resign – following calls for his swift removal over footage of the December 15 arrest.
During the encounter, officers are seen walking up to a visibly inebriated Rios, before asking several questions. As he responds, the lawmaker is heard slurring his words, and gets caught in a web lies that leads to him launch threats at the lawmen.
After rejecting a request to take a breathalyzer, he is cuffed and carted to a nearby police station. At this point, Rios starts antagonizing a British-born officer, poking fun at his accent with a xenophobic rant that his country is being ‘overrun by migrants.’
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Nico Rios, a Republican rep out of North Dakota who was filmed hurling homophobic slurs during a December 15 DUI stop, has avoided jail time, court records have revealed
Rios, a 35-year-old representing a district in Williston, was instead handed a year of unsupervised probation and a fine of $1,000, after pleading guilty to drunk driving January 8
‘Are you proud to be English?,’ Rios asks Williston PD Officer Alexander Welch in the now viral footage.
‘Why is that relevant?,’ the first-year officer responds, as Rios sits cuffed in the back of the police cruiser.
‘Because, what are you doing here in North Dakota arresting people?’ the disgraced conservative asks.
‘Your country is being taken over by ‘f—king migrants and refugees, right? Am I wrong? You’re arresting me for driving home, while people come into your country and rape your woman. Yes or no? And I’m the f**king bad guy? Yes or no?
‘Tell me! Tell me, bro! Yes or no?’
Welch, at this point, elects to sit in silence – while an audibly irate Rios continues his racist rant.
‘How many English woman have been raped by migrants? Thousands!’ he says, citing the surge in sex crime statistics in the UK and other European countries like Sweden after their implementation of open-door policy towards refugees
‘Thousands every week. And you’re arresting me, in North Dakota,’ Rios erroneously claims.
‘How many of your f**king friends and family members have been f**king brutalized and terrorized by migrants. And you’re arresting me. Good for you, bro. Good for f**king you, you motherf**ker.’
Body camera video captured North Dakota Republican lawmaker Nico Rios using profanity and homophobic slurs toward Williston police officer
Rios threatened to call the state’s attorney general during a DUI stop on December 5, 2023, in Williston, North Dakota
Rios threatened to call the state’s attorney general during a DUI stop on December 5, 2023, in Williston, North Dakota
Rios said he was leaving a Christmas party before the traffic stop
The homophobic slurs made by Rios can be heard in body camera footage
Williston Republican state Rep. Nico Rios is seen being arrested for driving under the influence
Rio said he was leaving a Christmas party before the traffic stop, and has ‘only gotten support from my colleagues, although a few have yelled at me for sure I deserved it.’
Rios was elected last year to the North Dakota House of Representatives. He threatened to call the state’s attorney general during a DUI stop
Earlier in the clip, Rios – who assumed office in the waning days of 2022 – threatens to call the North Dakota attorney general, telling the arresting officers they would ‘regret picking on me because you don’t know who … I am’.
Once in the stationhouse, Rios is heard making a homophobic remark to the same officer, before being booked for DUI and refusing to provide a chemical test.
After his release later that day, Rios posted an apologetic statement to X – after his arrest warrant and ‘verbally abusive, homophobic, racially abusive and discriminatory’ went public.
Cops from Williston – a city whose population has roughly doubled since 2010 – went on to release the footage showing Rios’s behavior, fanning the figurative flames around his offense.
In subsequent statements, the lawmaker expressed regret to the people of his district for what he labeled a ‘mistake’, but did not issue an apology to the officer he verbally attacked.
In those statements, Rios continued to bill himself as a ‘straight shooter’, before pleading guilty earlier this month as part of previously unreported deal.
His sentence includes a 10-day suspended jail sentence, a mandatory evaluation and a victim impact panel. A misdemeanor charge of refusing a chemical test was dismissed. He must also pay $50 for an open container violation.
That said, even after quashing the case against him , Rios continues to face calls from his party to resign.
Rios posted a statement apologizing for his actions on Twitter
Asked for comment, Rios said ‘Inebriated or not my actions and words to law enforcement that night were absolutely unacceptable’
Rios is a first-term elected official who won his seat in 2022, and is among a handful of young conservatives who have joined the North Dakota House of Representatives in recent years
Before moving to the state, Rios had been active in Republican working for Ted Cruz in the Texas Senator’s Washington D.C. office
Rios currently sits on the House Judiciary Committee, a panel that handles law enforcement legislation. He also is a wireline operator, an oil field position involved in the hydraulic fracturing of wells
Last week, Republican House Majority Leader Mike Lefor removed him from the Legislature’s interim Judiciary Committee, saying it wouldn’t be fair for law enforcement officers to testify in front of a committee of which Rios is a member.
In response, Rios has said he is ‘seriously mulling all aspects’ of his future, and plans to seek help for alcoholism, but announced no plans to resign.
He also previously said he takes responsibility for his ‘disgusting actions,’ and apologized ‘to those I have hurt and disappointed,’ including law enforcement officers.
Rios has said he was leaving a Christmas party before police pulled him over.
Currently employed in an oil field position involved in the hydraulic fracturing of wells, Rios was elected unopposed in 2022 to a four-year term in the state House of Representatives.
As of Thursday, Republicans control the House, 82-12.