Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

10:47 p.m. update:

Late Monday night, Assembly Majority Leader Paul Anderson released the following statement in reaction to this report on behalf of the Assembly Republican Caucus:

“The Assembly Republican Caucus is shocked to hear of the actions of Jim Riger Sr. and the disturbing nature of his emails and social media posts. This appalling behavior is sickening and absolutely unacceptable. Our caucus strongly condemns this conduct. At no time have any of the leaders of the Assembly Republican Caucus had any communication with Mr. Riger and our caucus has not supported his campaign for Assembly in any way. We ask for him to immediately withdraw from the race.”

Original story:

Police are investigating how nude photographs of a Republican candidate for state Assembly were emailed to a party leader, in what the candidate described as a social media hack and extortion plot against him.

Kim Bacchus, campaign chairwoman of the Washoe Republican Women and chairwoman of the Republican Women of Northern Nevada PAC, said she received photos of Jim Riger Sr., the Republican candidate for Assembly District 24 in downtown Reno, from Riger's email address in June.

Riger denied he sent the photos. He said someone hacked his account and has been extorting him to drop out of the race, which he said he intends to do. Riger also said he suffers from a traumatic brain injury.

Bacchus said Riger was on a mailing list for the Washoe Republican Women when a group email went out on June 9 seeking support for Republican primary campaigns.

Bacchus received a response from Riger’s email account that said, “am not the right man dont vote for me (sic),” she said. The email also included explicit selfies of Riger and photographs of genitalia, Bacchus said.

“I don’t think he specifically sent that to me, I think he sent it to whoever sent out that general email,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was being targeted myself."

Bacchus filed a police report.

“I believe it’s in the best interest of the community that Mr. Riger step down from his candidacy,” she said.

State Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald called for Riger to immediately remove himself from the race.

“The Nevada Republican Party has not worked with Jim Riger Sr. and will not be supporting him in any future capacity,” McDonald said. “The actions displayed by this individual are both reprehensible and disgusting, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms. There is no room for this kind of behavior in our party or our political process.”

In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal, Riger said the pictures were of him, but he did not send them to Bacchus, who he said he doesn't know. He said his social media accounts have been hacked multiple times and he is currently being extorted.

“They’re telling me that they want me to quit running for the state Legislature and if not they’re going to go viral and send pictures,” Riger said. “It’s all documented with the Reno Police Department.”

Police said they could not discuss details of ongoing investigations.

Riger said he does not know who would extort him or why, but thought it had something to do with him being Jewish.

The photos, Riger said, were meant for online girlfriends he’d been in contact with for more than a year.

Riger’s Twitter account, @riger_sr, is mainly a conglomeration of sports and hardcore pornography retweets. Retweeted photos included pictures of porn actress Ann Angel, whom Riger identified as one of his online girlfriends. Angel did not respond to an email request for comment.

Riger, an Air National Guard veteran, said he suffers from a traumatic brain injury and told the RGJ in an interview that he is “about 80 percent” disabled.

He was arrested in 2010 on a failure to appear charge regarding an RPD traffic citation, but has no reported history of sexual misconduct.

Riger has not actively campaigned for the Assembly seat, and has not filed the required campaign expense report. Nevertheless,his name will appear on the ballot opposite Democratic Assemblywoman Amber Joiner. The deadline to withdraw from the race was July 22.

Riger said removing himself from the race now would mean the extortionists win, but he planned on doing so.

Seth A. Richardson covers politics for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Like him on Facebook here or follow him on Twitter at @SethARichardson.