Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield (right) and his wife Stephanie Chatfield (left) leave court after their preliminary exam as the couple face multiple charges related to embezzlement on Feb. 28, 2025 | (By Anna Liz Nichols/Michigan Advance)
A Michigan judge is set to decide whether former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield and his wife will go to trial in an embezzlement probe linked to their political nonprofit after a preliminary examination ended Friday.
The case against the ex-GOP lawmaker is strictly a political move by the Democratic Attorney General’s office who is prosecuting the case, Lee and Stephanie Chatfield’s attorney, Mary Chartier, told the court during her closing statements. Much of her arguments assert that the Chatfields were fairly distant from their organization, the Peninsula Fund
But prosecutors said the couple funneled money out of to illegally pay for personal expenses including vacations, fitness memberships and clothing.
During three days of preliminary exams, Chartier called attention to the fact that the Dykema law firm was hired to ensure the nonprofit was used appropriately, a move the Chatfields were not legally obligated to do, and the firm did not halt the reported spending.
“If there is some big plot to steal money from the Peninsula Fund, why on Earth would you hire a well-respected, leading law firm in this area, give them full access to the books and then try to run your scam to embezzle?” Chartier said.
Dry cleaning, haircuts and a bill from a strip club were among personal purchases passed off as legitimate expenditures for former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield’s political nonprofit, the Peninsula Fund, according Renae Moore, a senior compliance analyst at Dykema law firm, who was the person responsible for ensuring compliance in spending for the fund.
When a receipt was submitted for a strip club, Moore said there was pause.
“It was questioned as far as whether it was a permitted expense,” Moore said. “We were told it was for a meeting expense and we had to trust that it was correct.”
After that pattern of quesitonable spending out of the Peninsula Fund was noticed, Moore testified Wednesday, a policies and procedures guide was made in order to curb the personal expenses.
As a non-profit social welfare program, a 501(c)(4), the Peninsula Fund would be permitted to engage in some political activities, but is federally mandated to operate exclusively for the promoting general welfare and not for personal gain.
Lee Chatfield, who was in office from 2014 to 2020, is regaled as a powerhouse fundraiser in the Republican party in Michigan, Assistant Attorney General Kahla Crino said in her closing arguments Friday and any attempt to say he didn’t understand the basic purpose of his 501(c)(4) to be geared towards social welfare is “unreasonable”
The Michigan Attorney General’s office has said that during the six years Chatfield was in the legislature, he raised $5 million.
“Mr. Chatfield was not only an agent of the Peninsula Fund, but he was perhaps the most important agent of the Peninsula Fund, an agent who was so important that it looks like maybe the Peninsula Fund would not even exist, if not for Mr. Chatfield being in elected office,” Crino said.
Nessel announces criminal enterprise charges against former Speaker Chatfield and his wife
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, telling the court Thursday that from January 2020 to April 2021, 99% of the more than $150,000 spent on the Chatfield’s personal credit cards was reimbursed by the Peninsula Fund.
For example, Gallagher’s findings showed that Lee Chatfield reimbursed his personal credit card with $1,700 from the Peninsula Fund for purchases made while on a family vacation to Orlando, Florida, in 2020. Those include charges at Harry Potter and Spider-Man souvenir shops at Universal Studios, as well as transactions from wineries and at Ugg and Coach stores.
Crino rebutted Chartier’s claim that the criminal charges are political by saying during her closing arguments that the only reason there is a financial crimes case is because Lee Chatfield’s own family member alerted local authorities to the former lawmaker’s illegal actions.
The original investigation into Chatfield started after his sister-in-law, Rebekah Chatfield, told the Lansing Police Department in December 2021 that he had sexually assaulted her for more than a decade, starting when she was 14 or 15 years old.
State Police investigated the reports of sexual assault for months, also looking into evidence of financial crimes Rebekah Chatfield had reported. Authorities turned the case over to Nessel’s office in September 2022. In April, Nessel’s office brought the embezzlement charges but closed the sexual assault investigation due to a lack of evidence.
Chartier has said the sexual assault allegations are false.
On Thursday, Rebekah Chatfield testified that Lee Chatfield “made up” jobs for her and his brother, her husband Aaron Chatfield. The pair would be directed to go to the bank to pull out funds for Lee Chatfield, she said.
Rebekah Chatfield also said in court that she told investigators previously that Lee Chatfield wasn’t giving direction on financials, it was a staffer named Anne Minard who was in control of the money.
In the Michigan Attorney General’s investigation into Lee Chatfield’s financial dealings, the office brought charges against Chatfield’s top aides Robert and Anne Minard, who prosecutors say embezzled over a half-million dollars while at the service of the former speaker using nonprofit organizations and state campaign committees, as well as falsifying tax records. The pair have entered not guilty pleas.
Several members of the Chatfield family and their family friends affirmed during testimony this week that Anne Minard was the president of the Peninsula Fund, and the primary point of contact for Moore and the rest of the Dykema law firm who oversaw compliance for the fund.
Anne Minard was a “workhorse” for the Chatfield’s, childhood friend of Lee Chatfield and his brothers, Wilbur Lovitt, told the court Thursday. He outlined how she would book the flights and other expenses for the various trips to places like the Bahamas, Las Vegas and Miami he went on with Lee Chatfield where, many times, he did not have to pay for things for the trip.
During one 2018 trip to the Bahamas where Lovitt said members of the Chatfield family and other men he described as his “best friends” went to bars and a casino at a resort, he used funds from the $5,000 check that he had been given from the Chatfield Majority Fund, a political action committee.
Lovitt testified that he gave Lee Chatfield, at Chatfield’s request, a few hundred dollars to tip for bottle service and another few hundred to gamble.
Lovitt, as well as Lee Chatfield’s brothers Paul and Aaron Chatfield all testified that they were unofficially employees at various points of Lee Chatfield’s political career, namely during campaigns, doing constituent services and placing campaign signs, often clocking well-over 40 hour work weeks that were compensated by the Chatfield Majority Fund after long stretches of time by checks for a few thousand dollars.
The distinction of funds from the Peninsula Fund versus the Chatfield Majority Fund, as they are two different types of funds, will be taken under consideration on what charges, if any, will proceed to trial, which 54B District Court. Judge Molly Hennessey Greenwalt will consider over the next few weeks as she works on her decision.