news-queue:

Michigan State Police and the Lansing Police Department are investigating the criminal complaint filed by the woman, who is now Chatfield’s sister-in-law. She said the encounters continued for more than a decade into 2021.  

Chatfield  — a pastor’s son whose website was emblazoned with the slogan “Faith, Family, Service” before it went offline in the past week — was the youngest Michigan House speaker in more than a century when legislative colleagues elected him to the powerful position at the age of 30 in 2018.

But behind the squeaky clean image, Chatfield took advantage of the girl’s vulnerabilities when she was a high school student and continued to sexually assault her throughout his political tenure in Lansing, including inside his Capitol office, Rebekah Chatfield, now 26, said in a series of interviews in recent weeks with Bridge Michigan.

“He destroyed me, and has controlled my life since I was 15-16, the past 10-11 years,” she said. “And I know the only way to get justice for this is to come forward and to file a criminal (complaint) against him.”

Rebekah Chatfield told Bridge she documented her allegations in a criminal complaint filed last month with police in Lansing, where she lives. The city declined to release the complaint to Bridge under the state’s public records law, saying Monday that disclosure would interfere with an “ongoing investigative proceeding.”

Lansing City Pulse first reported the existence of the police report Thursday evening.

Lansing Police “immediately” began investigating the complaint and are currently “coordinating with Michigan State Police for accusations in jurisdictions outside the city of Lansing,” city spokesperson Robert Merritt told Bridge. Shanon Banner, a spokesperson for the Michigan State Police, confirmed state investigators in northern Michigan are reviewing the complaint.

Lee Chatfield could not be reached for comment Thursday or Friday, directly or through family members. Calls to his cell phone prompted an automated message that “the wireless customer you are calling is not available.” An email sent to an account linked to his personal website bounced back, indicating the address no longer exists.

But in a statement Friday, Lee Chatfield’s lawyer characterized the interactions with “the woman who is now claiming she was raped” as a consensual affair when they were both adults. The lawyer also stated Chatfield had multiple extramarital affairs.

Read More