I always hate it when someone on the conservative side of the aisle does something horrible or stupid and because we have become a nation where politics has colored all of our views, their behavior becomes our stigma.
Former Michigan State House Speaker, Lee Chatfield (R) was accused of multiple sexual assaults by his alleged victim when she was a teenager, and it turns out that she is his own sister-in-law, Rebekah Chatfield.
Rebekah is married to Lee's younger brother. She claims Chatfield assaulted her “more times than I can count” beginning when she was 15 years old more than a decade ago--she is now 26.
Rebekah filed the criminal complaint with the Lansing Police Department against Lee, 33, she revealed in several
interviews with Bridge Michigan. The assaults allegedly started when Rebekah began dating Lee's younger brother and continued until last year.
“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.”
Lee Chatfield was the youngest person to serve as Speaker of the House in Michigan in over 100 years. He left office in 2020 as a result of term limits.
Rebekah alleged the assaults first began when she was either 15 or 16 year old at Northern Michigan Christian Academy, which, at the time, was where Lee was teaching and coaching soccer before going into politics, unlike his father, who is a pastor, the school superintendent and a teacher.
At that time Rebekah, then 19, was dating Aaron Chatfield, Lee's kid brother. They were "doing it" so the family pushed them to get married, according to the report. They were engaged in June 2014 and married in August.
Rebekah said that she kept the incidents with Lee secret from her family and Aaron because she was ashamed and afraid to tell them. But in December, she said her mental health was in jeopardy and she told them and also filed a police report, according to Bridge.
“I had a lot of family stuff going on in my life,” she told Bridge. “My dad was a recovering alcoholic, and so I believe that Lee used those (circumstances) against me and helped take advantage of me. So he would manipulate me, he would mess with my emotions."
She explained, “My whole world was the Chatfield family. So if I told (the Chatfields), that would, that would ruin everything. I couldn’t see what would happen past then. I didn’t know there was an option to report. I didn’t know there were options for therapy.”
Aaron claimed to remember his older brother being "handsy" with his then-girlfriend when they were younger.
“I always had questions,” he told Bridge. “I don’t remember how I asked, I just remember saying, ‘Is something going on between you and Lee?’
“I just saw the way he looked at her.”
Bridge goes on to tell of the emotional experiences Rebekah went through and what a dickweed Lee was, along with Aaron, who basically sat with his thumb stuck in his nether regions.
In fact, even Rebekah's mother, Debbie Newberry, said she saw a change in her daughter's behavior in her later teenage years, but evidently she too did nothing to help her.
Aaron quit school earlier to support his brother’s political career. He claimed that he’d worked in Lansing as Lee’s driver and would take the scumcrumpet to strip clubs and to meet with various women, including a former staffer.
“Lee portrays himself as a family tradition, conservative guy who believes in the Bible and the Bible is so important,” said Aaron, 26. “No, it couldn’t be further from who my man was as a person.”
So it turns out that Lee is a liberal in a conservative's clothing in spite of his party affiliation.
Since Aaron learned about his brother’s years of assault on his wife in December, he has been supportive of her and is confident she is telling the truth, he alleged.
Lee’s father, Rusy Chatfield, who founded the church and school where his son taught told Bridge without actually knowing the truth that “the allegations are false.” like any father might say of his son.
Rebekah admitted to the Bridge that at times it was she who initiated contact with Lee, but denied that it was consensual.
“…it was never consensual, because it started when I was a minor — the brainwashing, the mentality, the manipulation, the psychological, the emotional — he groomed me into being who he wanted me to be.”
Lee has not commented on the accusations, but his attorney Mary Chartier told The Bridge in a statement that both were “consenting adults” in the over ten year relationship when Rebekah was a teenager. [Do the math.]
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So his lawyer is implying the sexual relationship only began after she came to the age of consent, but under Michigan law, while that age is 16, it is illegal for teachers to have any type of penetrative sex with a student under the age of 18.
Even if that turns out to be true, it's kind of a crappy thing to do with your brother's girlfriend.
Hopefully justice will be served and if found guilty, Lee will still have the opportunity to meet guys over the legal age with names like Spike, Shredder, and Bobby Bag O' Donuts. It's unlikely he'll go to prison, however.
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