Rob and Anné Minard
State investigators carried out paper bags, a suitcase and a computer monitor Tuesday from the Lansing-area home of a couple who were former House Speaker Lee Chatfield's highest-paid legislative staffers.
The search of Rob and Anné Minard's home in Bath Township came weeks after Michigan State Police detectives began investigating sexual assault claims by Chatfield's sister-in-law, Rebekah Chatfield, that date back to when the 26-year-old woman was a teen.
Crain's Detroit Business has this background and a comment by Lee Chatfield's attorney in Okemos:
Rob Minard was Chatfield's chief of staff when Chatfield was speaker in 2019 and 2020. Anné Minard was Chatfield's director of external affairs.
Mary Chartier, a criminal defense attorney representing Chatfield, denounced the state police raid on Tuesday and said it's based on "baseless" claims of financial impropriety from Rebekah Chatfield.
"The search of the home of Mr. Chatfield's former chief of staff is the latest move in an attempt to take down a former Republican politician based on completely false accusations," Chartier said in an email to Crain's. "This entire charade was started with the lies of Rebekah Chatfield, a woman who had a consensual and adult affair with Mr. Chatfield for 7 years."
Original article, Tuesday morning:
Ex-Michigan State House Speaker Lee Chatfield is back in the news.
State troopers on Tuesday morning were at the Lansing-area home of his top political and legislative staffers, who are married, The Detroit News reports:
Spokespeople for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the state police declined to provide information about what was happening at the home of Rob and Anné Minard. But Shanon Banner of the state police said the agency was working in conjunction with Nessel's office as part of an "ongoing investigation."
"There is no further information to disclose at this time," Banner said.
In January, Chatfield's 26-year-old sister-in-law, Rebekah Chatfield, accused the former speaker of sexually abusing her beginning when she was 15 years old. The woman's attorney, Jamie White, said there were also unspecified financial allegations involving Lee Chatfield.
Anne Minard is principal officer of the Peninsula Fund, a nonprofit organization tied to Chatfield. In a tax filing, it disclosed spending $142,266 on travel and entertainment for public officials in 2020, The News reported eqarlier. "It raised $753,483 [that year] from secret donors, who could have been lobbyists," Lansing bureai writer Craig Mauger wrote.
The Minards "controlled the finances for the Peninsula Fund while owning a consulting firm that was paid nearly $500,000 from various Chatfield funds" from 2018-20 Bridge Michigan posted late last month.
As majority chief of staff, Rob Minard made $164,300, the most of any House staffer, while Anne had a salary of $116,600 as director of external affairs, according to state records.
Chatfield, in his farewell speech on the House floor in December 2020, said he was indebted to the couple. "I would not be where I am without you and I would not be who I am without you," he said at the time.
Chatfield, who was term-limited at the end of 2020, denies any wrongdoing.
