Chatfield under criminal investigation for allegedly molesting a teenager

[demmiblue]

Alleged victim was the ex-House speaker’s future sister-in-law

THURSDAY, Jan. 6 — The sister-in-law of former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield has filed a criminal complaint against him with the Lansing Police Department for allegedly sexually assaulting her beginning when she was a teenager attending his church and the associated Christian school.

A city spokesman said today that the city has transferred the matter to the Michigan State Police for investigation.

The woman, now 27, alleges the sexual assaults began when she was “15,” and attending Northern Michigan Baptist Bible Church and the Northern Michigan Christian Academy School, said her attorney, Jamie White, of the White Law Firm in Lansing. Chatfield’s father, Rusty, is the pastor of the church and the administrator for the school. The alleged sexual exploitation continued until July 2021. City Pulse does not identify the victims of sexual assault without their permission.

Chatfield, 33, is one of seven children of Rusty and Betty Chatfield.

https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/chatfield-headline,19456

Flashback:

Link to tweet

[bahboo]

1. sister in law? getting kinky in repub land....

[padah513]

2. If she was fifteen that's no affair

It's rape. A child can't consent

[demmiblue]

3. Adding this article from Bridge:

Sister-in-law: Ex-MI House Speaker Lee Chatfield sexually assaulted me as teen

LANSING—Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield manipulated and sexually assaulted the teenage girlfriend of his younger brother when she was a student at the Christian academy where he taught, the woman said she has told police.

Michigan State Police and the Lansing Police Department are now 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.

https://www.bridgemi.com/children-families/sister-law-ex-mi-house-speaker-lee-chatfield-sexually-assaulted-me-teen

A must read, imo.