LINCOLN — AS REPORTED BY THE NEBRASKA EXAMINER: “State Sen. Mike Groene submitted his resignation Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours after denying accusations that he took sexually inappropriate photographs of a female legislative aide.

Groene confirmed that he had submitted his resignation to Gov. Pete Ricketts and that the governor had accepted it. Groene, an often outspoken lawmaker, was completing his second term in the Nebraska Legislature.

“I am not going to drag my wife, family and friends through the fight it would take to defend myself,” the senator said in a text. “I am resigning and dropping out of politics completely. Life is too short.”

That means, Groene said, that he is dropping out of the race for University of Nebraska Board of Regents, a campaign he announced only two days ago.

The resignation comes after the Nebraska Sunrise News reported that Kristina Konecko, who had worked on and off for Groene for six years, had lodged a complaint over photos of herself that she had discovered on Groene’s laptop computer. Konecko, according to the website, considered the photos inappropriate.

“The pictures appeared to have been taken by Groene and then emailed from him to other parties with email captions of a sexual nature,” the website reported. Konecko described the photos as “objectifying and demeaning.” The Sunrise News story said some were “zoom-close-ups of provocative body parts with explicit subject lines.”

This is a breaking story. To read continuing news coverage please click HERE