Lee Chatfield’s fate remains uncertain when the judge delays the decision of the trial: 9 and 10 news

East Lansing – The former president of Michigan’s house, Lee Chatfield, left the Court on Friday still uncertain about whether or not his case proceed to trial.

Tax evidence presented this week They say that Chatfield showed making numerous positions on his personal credit card, almost everyone was paid for his political organization, the fund of the peninsula.

The evidence was presented in a preliminary examination, a hearing prior to the trial in which prosecutors must convince a judge that the case must go to trial.

A financial analyst who worked with the State testified on Thursday that Chatfield charged more $ 153,000 to his card in a period of 15 months, of which the fund paid $ 152,000.

The prosecutors also argued that Chatfield wrote checks to the family members of the fund, who would later charge and return a part of that money to Chatfield.

“This is essentially a shell game designed and led by Lee to use the PAC money, disguised as wages, to pay an inadequate expense that incurred the account of the Peninsula Fund,” said Kahla Crino, a state assistant attorney general.

Chatfield’s defense team delayed, saying that the poor management of the peninsula should fall into the Dykema law firm, which kept records for the organization.

“If there were any notion of a check that should not have come out, a payment that should not have come out, it was his job to mark it,” said Mary Chartier, Chatfield’s lawyer. “It was his work to investigate and investigate it, and it was his job not to allow it.”

On Wednesday, Dykema’s compliance officer, Renae Moore, described part of the basis of the fund as “questionable”, but said he was not aware of the duty to inform potentially illegal transactions.

“Some days I would enter the office and have 15 different emails with credit card receipts or debit card receipts, and, like some small words, emails, sometimes there would be no words, only receipts by email,” he said. “This would do so, it was fast and furious at certain points.”

The defense also argued that Chatfield had little participation in the fund operations and that the State had not shown that Chatfield himself has paid the card’s balance.

Texts revealed in the Lee Chatfield trial program and his wife Stephanie discussed a credit card, while referring to transactions that coincide with some of which the card that was paying the non -profit organization was made.

“Both Lee and Stephanie would have been aware that they had not made a single payment on that Chase credit card with their own money, starting in January 2020,” said Crino.

The judge could let the case proceed to trial, to dismiss completely or just allow specific positions to advance.

His ruling could arrive any day, but each party has 30 days for a requested legal presentation, potentially kicking the decision until April.