Democrats in Oregon are demanding that a Republican state senator who threatened police be investigated.

A memo from an outside law firm retained by Oregon’s state legislature recommended that Brian Boquist, who made national news when he threatened state police last week, be barred from the courthouse until those threats were investigated. According to the Associated Press, several staff members recorded in the memo that they were “fearful and scared to come to work.”

“This member threatened to kill an Oregon state trooper,” said senator Shemia Fagan, a Democrat. “If that’s not unacceptable, then what is unacceptable?”

A formal complaint has also been filed against Mr Boquist, which will be heard at a special committee meeting in July. At a news conference last week, senate minority leader Herman Baertschiger refused to characterise Mr Boquist’s comments as inappropriate, saying his words were simply “unhelpful”.

The saga began last month when Republicans in Oregon’s senate walked out to avoid voting on a proposed cap and trade bill to reduce the state’s fossil fuel emissions, in an effort to battle climate change. In response, Oregon governor Kate Brown ordered the state police to round up the eleven fugitive senators, who were thought to have fled to neighbouring Idaho.

Boquist, one of the hiding republicans, told reporters that his message for the state police was to “send bachelors and come heavily armed.” He later clarified that he was indeed threatening harm, after a reporter cited his comments as “thinly veiled” threats.

“Nothing thinly veiled,” senator Boquist wrote in an email to an Oregon newspaper. “I have been in political coup attempts. I have been held hostage overseas. I have been jailed politically overseas...Not going to be arrested as a political prisoner in Oregon period.”

The Republicans did eventually return after a week away, but legislature was this time delayed by Democrats, whose requests for senator Boquist to be barred from the floor due to his threats were denied.

Senator Sara Gelser, a Democrat, said Saturday that she would not appear in the chamber if Mr Boquist was present. Citing her disappointment in state senate leadership, she entered the courthouse only after the Republican left the building on Sunday.

Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Show all 25 1 /25 Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Masked Butterflyfish (Chaetodon semilarvatus) swimming over a bommie reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed, off the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Rising sea temperatures cause corals to bleach (go white) and die Getty/iStock Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A giant clam is seen nestled among coral reefs at the Obhor coast, 30 kms north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah AFP/Gett Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reef in seychelles that has degraded After the reef has died they break up and become rubble. On this reef there is some regrowth of young corals so there is hope for recovery Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A rabbitfish in a net H Goehlich Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A school of fish and a sea can in a healthy coral reef off the coast of Isla Mujeres, Mexico Getty/Lumix Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Sky views of great barrier reef in Australia Getty/iStock Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A fish swims among coral reefs at the Obhor coast AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth while scuba diving in the Red Sea AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A rope nursery Nature Seychelles Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada. The rebounding tourism sector is worrisome for the fragile marine ecosystem AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A parrotfish on the reef C Reveret Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Gorgonian sea fan on a a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A diver swims during a Great Barrier Reef experience on Lady Elliot Island, Australia Getty/Tourism Queensland Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Jessica Bellsworthy, a PhD student conducting research on the coral reefs of the Gulf of Eilat, holds a coral in an aquarium at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral reefs in the water off the Obhor coast, 30 kms north of the Red Sea city of Jeddah in 2008 AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A diver photographs golden anthias (Pseudanthias aurulentus) on a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve of Ras Mohamed AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage FUNAFUTI, TUVALU - AUGUST 15: From the air the ocean (L) and the logoon (R) and separated by a thin stip of land on August 15, 2018 in Funafuti, Tuvalu. The small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is striving to mitigate the effects of climate change. Rising sea levels of 5mm per year since 1993, well above the global average, are damaging vital crops and causing flooding in the low lying nation at high tides. Sea water rises through the coral atoll on the mainland of Funafuti and inundates taro plantations, floods either side of the airport runway and affects peoples homes. The nation of 8 inhabited islands with an average elevation of only 2m above sea level is focusing on projects to help it and its people have a future. Four of the outer islands are 97% solar energy dependent and the Tuvalu Government is working to achieve 100% renewable energy from wind and solar by 2025. Tuvalu's 11,000 inhabitants see the effects of climate change in their daily life. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images for Lumix) Fiona Goodall Getty/Lumix Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A photo taken on April 4, 2019 shows fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada. - In dazzling turquoise waters off Egypt's Red Sea coast, scuba divers swim among delicate pink jellyfish and admire coral -- but the rebounding tourism sector is worrisome for the fragile marine ecosystem. (Photo by Mohamed el-Shahed / AFP) (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images) MOHAMED EL-SHAHED AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Coral gardening A damselfish Sarah Frias-Torres Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Divers swim past a coral reef in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage A puffer fish hovering above coral in the Egyptian Red Sea marine reserve AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth while scuba diving on June 12, 2017 in the Red Sea off Eilat. Global warming has in recent years caused colourful coral reefs to bleach and die around the world -- but not in the Gulf of Eilat, or Aqaba, part of the northern Red Sea. At the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in southern Israeli resort city Eilat, dozens of aquariums have been lined up in rows just off the Red Sea shore containing samples of local corals AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage This photo taken on April 21, 2017 shows an aerial shot of part of mischief reef in the disputed Spratly islands on April 21, 2017. Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana flew to a disputed South China Sea island on April 21, brushing off a challenge by the Chinese military while asserting Manila's territorial claim to the strategic region. / AFP PHOTO / TED ALJIBE (Photo credit should read TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images) TED ALJIBE AFP/Getty Coral reefs: Trying to combat climate change damage fish swimming off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada AFP/Getty

A separate memo from the state’s interim human resources director said only the full senate can take action against one of its members. Ms Gelser maintains that leadership was more focused on pushing through policy bills before the legislative session ended at midnight on Sunday night than attending to safety concerns.

“There has to be a point at which we are willing to ... have a rocky floor session if that’s what it takes to make things better,” she said. “People deserve to be safe.”

Mr Boquist told the Associated Press that he had not spoken to Ms Gelser about the matter. He said he was unaware of the formal complaint until seeing news reports on the situation.