(WXYZ) — A former student at the Northern Michigan Christian Academy is speaking out about allegations of criminal sexual conduct by a teacher who also happens to be the former speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives Lee Chatfield.
Alexis Prince was a high school student when Chatfield was a middle school teacher. His accuser, Rebekah Chatfield, is now married to Aaron Chatfield, Lee's younger brother who was also in high school with Alexis.
Michigan State Police are investigating Rebekah's claim that Lee sexually assaulted her over several years starting at age 15 or 16. Lee Chatfield denies it.
We normally don’t name alleged victims of sexual assault. But Rebekah wants her story to be told.
“She was definitely close to the Chatfields from what I could see,” Alexis tells WXYZ, though she says she didn’t know Rebekah well.
Aaron worked for his brother while Lee was Speaker of the House until Lee left in 2020.
Prince left NMCA after only one year - 2011. She describes the school as “controlling, manipulative, abusive. A lot of the rules I would consider over the top and kind of cult-like.”
She\ is now 27, married with three kids, and lives in Petosky, about a half-hour away from the school.
“The church was, it was almost like its own little community, and everybody knew the rules, and you followed the rules,” she said.
She describes the school as men and boys were superior, students wore uniforms, girls could not be close to boys in school, long hair was encouraged for girls, and if a student got out of line, they could be spanked. “It was supposed to always happen in the office, and there was always supposed to be a male and female teacher present.”
Prince says she didn’t get spanked but her younger brother did. He had Lee Chatfield as a teacher in the middle school. It was mostly younger students who received corporal punishment: “My brother never really talked about it so I don’t know if it was with a paddle or a hand.”
Prince says she had a friend who died in a car accident three years ago who claimed she was raped by another student at NMCA. And her friend had a meeting at the school office: “From what she said, the principal and Rusty Chatfield, the pastor, they were trying to convince her — from what she said — convince her that she was actually the one in the wrong. She was pressuring him, and she led him down this road, and made her to feel like, feel guilty for basically corrupting him.”
On Friday, WXYZ received a statement from attorney Mary Chartier, representing Lee Chatfield. Chartier said that said Lee Chatfield and Rebekah Chatfield had a long consensual relationship. The statement also said in part :
Mr. Chatfield’s affair with this woman lasted for years, but they were both consenting adults over 18.
During their affair, this woman regularly contacted Mr. Chatfield to initiate sexual encounters, and she took steps to hide the affair from others, including her husband.
Alexis Prince says her friend was also a member of the Chatfield church, and says, “she had to apologize to the congregation in order to be able to stay at the church, in the school, is what she had expressed to me.”
Prince says people up north aren’t openly talking about the case. When they do, they say they’re praying for both sides and waiting for the facts.
The full statement from Attorney Chartier on Friday:
Mr. Chatfield’s affair with this woman lasted for years, but they were both consenting adults over 18.
During their affair, this woman regularly contacted Mr. Chatfield to initiate sexual encounters, and she took steps to hide the affair from others, including her husband. The actions that she took prove a consensual affair and not an assaultive relationship. She lived out of state for roughly 3.5 years, yet she took steps to continue the affair that she is now trying to recharacterize.
Mr. Chatfield did not “brainwash” the complainant, as she now claims to the media. She was an adult woman when their affair began, and she chose to continue the affair.
We’re not surprised that this woman is attempting to gear up for a civil lawsuit, but there is no merit to her claims.
WXYZ called Rusty Chatfield the Pastor and School leader and have not heard back.
