AUGUSTA — House Speaker Ryan Fecteau has directed the House Ethics Committee to investigate the conduct of one of its members.

Rep. Randall Hall (R-Wilton) pleaded guilty last week to one count of unsworn falsification and one count of criminal violations of the clean election act, according to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. 

Hall, who did not return a phone call Friday seeking comment, successfully used the state’s clean election fund in three previous campaigns for office.

But this time around, ethics commission staff found 17 signatures “that appeared to be falsified on the forms,” according to the ethics commission. 

On Thursday, Fecteau, a Biddeford Democrat, said because Hall has not yet resigned, he is asking a bipartisan House committee to investigate his conduct.

“I called on Rep. Hall to resign because he has betrayed the public trust and admitted to wrongdoing,” Fecteau said in a statement. “He has chosen not to do so, further eroding the trust of his constituents and all Maine people.” 

The committee last met in 2021 when it voted to reprimand former Paris Rep. John Andrews, who at the time was a Libertarian, for refusing to wear a face covering on the House floor.

The committee is charged with upholding the Legislative Code of Ethics. Fecteau said he will convene the House — which typically does not meet again until December — to take up the committee’s recommendation once it is complete. 

Hall is in his fourth term and is prevented by term limits from seeking reelection in November.