Vermont state Sen. Norman McAllister (R) “has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of sexual assault and three misdemeanors of prohibited acts, the charges arising from what police describe as a sex-for-rent scheme involving several unwilling tenants,” the Burlington Free Press reports.

Prosecutors allege McAllister, “over a period of several years sexually assaulted two women who were his tenants and employees, and that he attempted to solicit a third woman… The allegations, explained in sometimes graphic detail in court papers, shocked the governor and McAllister’s Statehouse colleagues, several of whom witnessed his arrest outside the Capitol on Thursday evening.”