Update: Anti-immigration Maryland GOP candidate accused of molesting 8-year-old girl cleared

UPDATE: Hethmon has been acquitted of all charges. See statement below.

An anti-immigration Republican candidate was charged last week with molesting an 8-year-old girl.

Michael Hethmon, senior counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, is running a long-shot campaign for Maryland’s House of Delegates.

The 60-year-old is nationally known for his legal work helping to push anti-immigration laws and providing legal advice to anti-immigration lawmakers.

Hethmon is accused of sexually touching the girl Aug. 31 at his farm in Upper Marlboro.

The victim’s mother is a nurse practitioner helping Hethmon to care for his elderly father.

Investigators said Hethmon offered to brush hay off the girl outside a barn on the property, and the girl told authorities he put his hand inside her pants and molested her.

She fled and told her mother, who reported the incident to police.

Hethmon, who is free on bail, has not said whether he would remain in the race for District 23B delegate in Prince George’s County.

He works for the legal division of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has been linked to white supremacist groups through its founder and other top officials.

One of the group’s major goals is overturning the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended the longstanding quota system that limited immigration mostly to northern Europeans.

Watch this video report posted online by WUSA-TV:

UPDATE: Statement by Hethmon's election committee

Attorney Mike Hethmon was acquitted of all charges by grand jury on October 2, 2014. The charges were filed as part of a failed extortion attempt against the long-time Upper Marlboro resident.

Hethmon has resumed his dark horse campaign, where he advocates replacement of state income tax with an electronic value added tax (E-TAX); restrictions on local police SWAT teams, statewide use of E-Verify work authorization programs, opposition to the wasteful and obsolete Purple Line, and transfer of funding for job training from universities and high schools to Maryland community colleges.

-- Committee to Elect Mike Hethmon 23B, J. Papanikolas, Treasurer