Lee Chatfield’s wife avoids prison with guilty plea in Michigan corruption probe

Stephanie Chatfield will serve no jail time after pleading guilty to embezzling from a nonprofit fundraising account
Former House Speaker Lee Chatfield still faces 13 felony charges and is scheduled to stand trial in September
Three of four charged in the original corruption investigation have taken plea deals with Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office

EAST LANSING — The wife of former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield has pleaded guilty to embezzling from a political nonprofit, more than two years after both were charged as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe.

Stephanie Chatfield had faced two counts of embezzling and conspiring to embezzle up to $20,000 from a nonprofit, each of which was punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Under an agreement revealed Tuesday, Stephanie Chatfield will face no jail time. Instead, she’ll get probation after pleading guilty to embezzling between $200 and $1,000 from the nonprofit.

Lee Chatfield still faces 13 felony counts, including allegedly “conducting a criminal enterprise,” which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

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The Republican former lawmaker left the courtroom with his wife on Tuesday, but both declined to discuss the case with a Bridge Michigan reporter, as did an attorney for Stephanie Chatfield.

Lee Chatfield’s attorney Mary Chartier called Stephanie’s plea agreement “a thoughtful and reasonable one based on the facts and circumstances” but said it has “no impact” on her client’s case.

“We’re still getting ready for trial,” she said.

Prosecutors allege the Chatfields used the nonprofit Peninsula Fund and other political accounts to bankroll a “lavish” lifestyle.

Nonprofits and 501(c)4 organizations “are meant to support the public welfare and wellbeing, they’re not a personal slush fund for the politically connected,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement on the plea agreement.

Stephanie Chatfield likely won’t be ordered to pay any money in restitution because the nonprofit account she embezzled from is “now defunct,” Nessel’s office said.

The deal means three of the four people Nessel’s office charged in the corruption investigation have taken plea agreements.

Two of Chatfield’s top legislative aides, Anné and Rob Minard, were sentenced to probation in December after agreeing to testify against their former boss. They had run much of Chatfield’s political and fundraising operations.

As his wife, Stephanie Chatfield could not have been compelled to testify against her husband.

The Minards did not get jail time and instead received six-month suspended prison sentences, three years of probation and must pay the state roughly $37,000 in back taxes and penalties.

While leading the state House in 2019 and 2020, Lee Chatfield raised millions of dollars.

At a preliminary examination in 2025, a forensic accountant testified that the Chatfields had used the nonprofit Peninsula Fund to pay off $152,000 in personal credit card debts.

Of that, nearly $21,700 was for allegedly improper expenses, including tickets to Universal Studios in Florida, a $1,353 dinner at Ocean Prime in Naples, Florida, nearly $1,000 in dry cleaning and more than $650 from the Vineyard Vines clothing company.

Chartier, Lee Chatfield’s attorney, has called the case against her client a “political prosecution” that has “nothing to do with integrity,” asserting the misappropriated money is less than $30,000. She shifted responsibility to a law firm hired to review the activity of the nonprofit Peninsula Fund account.

Authorities began investigating Lee Chatfield more than three years ago when his sister-in-law, Rebekah Chatfield, accused him of sexually assaulting and manipulating her for more than a decade, beginning in the early 2010s when she was a teenage student at the Christian school where he taught.

She first shared her account publicly with Bridge Michigan. Nessel, the state’s attorney general, previously said the probe failed to yield conclusive evidence of sexual assault, and Lee Chatfield characterized it as a consensual affair.

The investigation also shed light on the opaque world of nonprofit account fundraising in Michigan politics, where many elected officials have so-called “dark money” accounts which have little oversight of their fundraising and spending. Nessel has previously called for an overhaul of the state’s disclosure laws to allow less hidden fundraising.

Stephanie Chatfield is scheduled to be sentenced July 20, while Lee Chatfield is still scheduled to stand trial in September.