High stakes embezzlement case against former GOP Michigan House speaker goes to trial next week

The trial of former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield for alleged financial crimes is expected to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 22 — a high stakes case that could be a hallmark of Attorney General Dana Nessel’s final few months in office

Chatfield faces 13 felony charges, including conducting a criminal enterprise and embezzlement from a nonprofit organization.

Chatfield has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. His attorney, Mary Chartier-Mittendorf, has argued that the case was politically motivated coming from a Democratic attorney general against a prominent Michigan Republican who raised millions of dollars while he was House speaker.

The case is set to proceed before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Morgan Cole. An evidentiary hearing will be held Monday, prior to the trial, which will begin with jury selection on Tuesday.

Charges were first filed against Chatfield, who served as Michigan’s Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2018 to 2020, and his wife Stephanie, in April 2024. Nessel said at the time that an initial investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct revealed “various different schemes to embezzle, steal and convert both private and public monies to fund a lavish lifestyle that a state salary could not possibly afford.”

Chatfield was never charged with sexual assault despite allegations of such from his former sister-in-law, then known as Rebekah Chatfield.

In its findings for the alleged financial crimes, Nessel’s office alleged that Chatfield used funds from his 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, the Peninsula Fund, to pay for his lavish lifestyle — which included luxury purchases at Ugg, Coach and souvenir shops on a family vacation to Universal Studios in Florida, as well as paying off personal charges on credit cards and on renting and subletting an apartment. There were other expenditures exposed by Nessel’s team including dry cleaning bills, haircuts and money spent at a strip club that were all passed off as legitimate expenditures from nonprofit funds.

Wife of former Michigan House speaker sentenced for embezzling from campaign fund he controlled

Nessel also alleged that Chatfield utilized a kickback scheme from his political action committees, and that he received improper mileage reimbursements from state monies for trips he did not take.

In a 2025 hearing to determine whether or not the case would go to trial, the prosecution’s expert witness in forensic accounting, Michele Gallagher, compiled a report for the Michigan Attorney General’s office examining the Chatfields’ financial records. Gallagher told the court that from January 2020 to April 2021, 99% of the more than $150,000 spent on the Chatfields’ personal credit cards was reimbursed by the Peninsula Fund.

Two of Chatfield’s closest associates, Rob and Anné Minard, as well as wife, Stephanie, were similarly implicated in the same alleged embezzlement scheme. The Minards and Stephanie Chatfield have each accepted plea deals and may testify in the upcoming trial against the ex-speaker.

Stephanie Chatfield pleaded guilty in June to embezzling from a political nonprofit organization formerly controlled by Lee Chatfield. The deal resulted in her being sentenced to six months of probation and 25 hours of community service, as well as a $2,000 fine. Through that deal, she avoided a trial and prison time.

“Anyone who is granted access to non-profits and their funds must obey the law,” Nessel said in a statement following Stephanie Chatfield’s sentencing. “Proximity to influence does not grant immunity from accountability, and no one can use their nexus to power to unlawfully enrich themselves. Mrs. Chatfield was a willing participant on the Peninsula Fund gravy train, enjoying a lifestyle funded by money meant to support public welfare. My office remains committed to pursuing and prosecuting those who treat these types of accounts as personal piggy banks.”

Rob and Anné Minard, who respectively served as Chatfield’s chief of staff and his external affairs director, also pleaded guilty to charges related to the theft of funds from Working Together for a Better Michigan, a political action committee, in exchange for their testimony in Chatfield’s trial.

Chatfield aides sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to felony charges

Assistant Attorney General Kahla Crino said that admitted evidence from the Minards showed the intent to embezzle from the Peninsula Fund, and proof of improper travel, while Chartier-Mittendorf said in July, according to Gongwer News Service, that the Minards had “every incentive to lie.”

The investigation into the former speaker began in 2021 following allegations that Chatfield had sexually assaulted Rebekah Chatfield for years, starting when she was 14 or 15 years old. 

Lee Chatfield denied those allegations, and though they were turned over to Nessel’s office, her office later closed the sexual assault investigation without issuing charges. Nessel said her office did not have sufficient evidence to bring the matter to trial. However, that investigation led Nessel’s team to examine the allegations of financial misconduct.

The trial beginning Monday is expected to last multiple days.