Former Speaker Chatfield and his wife plead not guilty to financial felonies

Former Michigan state House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) and his wife, Stephanie Chatfield, were arraigned Thursday over Zoom in an East Lansing court, as the pair face numerous felonies after the Michigan Attorney General’s Office accused the pair of using various schemes to embezzle nonprofit money to fund luxury vacations and lavish purchases.

Nessel announces criminal enterprise charges against former Speaker Chatfield and his wife

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on April 16 that investigators from her office found that between February 2020 and April 2021, the Chatfields used Lee Chatfield’s Peninsula Fund, which was registered as a non-profit social welfare program to pay off $132,000 in largely personal purchases such as a family vacation to Universal Studios in Florida, a $32,000 trip to the Bahamas and purchases at UGG and Coach.

Lee Chatfield, a Levering Republican, served in the Michigan House from 2015 to 2020, and was elected as speaker for the last two years of his term.

Nessel outlined findings from the investigation in April saying that it was found that Lee Chatfield was found to have written a check to his brother from a political account, the Chatfield Majority Fund, which then was used to fund the vacation to Universal. Stephanie Chatfield’s charges stem from the attorney general’s assertion that it was Stephanie’s role to make payments from the Peninsula Fund for personal expenses.

Both Chatfields entered not guilty pleas in court Thursday.

East Lansing District Judge Molly Greenwalt set personal reconnaissance bonds for the Chatfields that do not need to be paid, as she said the pair were not a flight risk in the case, but ordered the pair to turn over their passports to the court.

Ahead of the judge’s decision, Lee Chatfield’s attorney, Mary Chartier,  said that for almost two-and-a-half years Chatfield has been subject to allegations and criticized in the media and he’s looking forward to clearing his name. 

“There’s been speculation, rumor, innuendo, false claims throughout all of this he has never fled — not once. If he were going to flee, he would have done it,” Chartier said. “He has five young children and has no history of failure to appear in court because he’s never had a need for any sort of criminal offense. And after two-and-a-half years of being falsely accused. He is looking forward to his day in court and fighting this, Mr. Chatfield is not a flight risk at all.”

The Chatfields are scheduled to be back in court for a probable cause conference in June.

Sexual assault allegations

The investigation into possible financial crimes committed by Lee Chatfield is ongoing, Nessel said back in April, but the investigation into reports of sexual assaults by Chatfield brought by his sister-in-law Rebekah Chatfield has concluded and no charges are being filed.

Rebekah Chatfield came forward in January 2022 with accusations that Lee Chatfield had repeatedly sexually assaulted her for over a decade, starting when she was 14 or 15 years old and a student at Michigan Christian Academy in Burt Lake, where Lee Chatfield used to be a teacher. His father, Rusty Chatfield, is the superintendent of the school.

During the attorney general’s investigation into the allegations of sexual violence, evidence of financial wrongdoings came to light, Nessel has said throughout the investigation. The investigation has also led to similar financial crime charges being filed against former top aides to Lee Chatfield, Robert and Anne Minard.

Rebekah Chatfield’s attorney, Jamie White, said in a statement the day of the charging announcement that his client was “shattered” to hear that no charges were filed in regards to her reports of sexual abuse.

“It is crucial that we continue to investigate this matter, as there may be more Chatfield victims whose stories have yet to be heard. The Attorney General’s office has failed in its duty to prosecute the worst of his crimes, and the investigation was flawed from the outset,” white said back in April. “Nevertheless, we will continue our work to ensure that Rebekah gets her day in court, and that Lee Chatfield will be brought to justice for sexual assault.”

Chartier has claimed that Lee Chatfield and Rebekah Chatfield had an affair, but it was a “years-long consensual adult affair.”

Back in January, White told the Advance that Rebekah Chatfield’s goal from the beginning has been to make sure Lee Chatfield can never do anything like what he did to her to anyone else. Lee Chatfield controlled all aspects of the family’s finances, White added, and any assertions that the assaults were actually a consensual affair between two adults goes against everything we know about adults grooming children.

“A big piece of the story that I think is being completely overlooked is that he was the teacher at the school,” White said. “She hated every minute of it. He literally assaulted her on her wedding night in a closet. She just felt trapped and she escaped that trap. … Her complete support system disappeared overnight when she decided to come forward with this and the idea that she did that for any other reason than to just escape is just insane to me and the bigger insanity is that he just waited till she was 18 years old.”