East Lansing, Mi – The former president of the house, Lee Chatfield, undergoes a three -day preliminary examination on allegations, he and others used dollars of fundraising for personal expenses.
The hearing began Wednesday, February 26, at the East Lansing court on Wednesday, February 26, where judge Molly Hennessy Greenwalt will decide if Chatfield should be tried before the Circuit Court of Ingham on 13 crimes alleging financial crimes.
His wife, Stephanie, faces two charges. They were charged last spring.
In relation: Former speaker of the Michigan Chamber, wife refuses the accusations
The state argues that they used private and public funds to finance a sumptuous lifestyle, which would have included a vacation of $ 32,000 in the Bahamas, a family trip to Universal Studios in Florida and by reimbursing a credit card balance of $ 132,000.
Chatfield has collected and used funds through a non -profit organization “Dark Money”, said the Peninsula office, said Prosecutor General Dana Nessel.
According to Detroit News’ Craig Mauger on xA witness testified on “questionable” expenses and said that Chatfield had rented an apartment in Lansing using non-profit money from secret donors, undergone it and kept the money.
Chatfield, R-Levering, was a lecturer of the room in 2019-2020. He served in the house from 2015 to 2010.
Prosecutors say that his wife used money from the peninsula to make payments on personal credit cards.
Chatfield lawyer Mary Chartier said earlier: “We are ready to fight them at each stage of the process.”
Lee Catfield is accused of four chiefs of embezzlement of a non -profit organization, of three chiefs of embezzlement of funds by an official of more than $ 50, three counts of embezzlement, of leading a criminal business, of conspiracy in order to divert a non -profit organization and to violate the charitable Trust Act.
Stephanie Chatfield faces unique enumerations of embezzlement of a non -profit organization and a conspiracy plot to commit a miscarriage of funds from a non -profit organization.