In a recent turn of legal events, Robert and Anné Minard of Bath Township have faced the music in Ingham County's 30th Circuit Court. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that Judge James Jamo sentenced the couple to a 6-month delayed sentence, which will quickly be followed by 36 months of probation. Each has pled guilty to two felony charges under a plea agreement and now faces the task of paying back full restitution to the Michigan Department of Treasury.
Back in December 2023, the pair were initially charged with a gamut of felonies, accused of misappropriating funds from a few nonprofits and political action committees with links to the once House Speaker Lee Chatfield. The charges specifically aimed at Robert Minard included one count of larceny by false pretenses—roughly in the neighborhood of $20,000 but less than $50,000—for stealing from Working Together for a Better Michigan and various political candidates. Anné Minard was hit with a count of embezzlement—ranging between $1,000 and $20,000—from the nonprofit Peninsula Fund. Both were also charged with one count of filing a false tax return.
According to a statement from the Michigan Attorney General's Office, November saw Robert Minard enter his guilty plea on the larceny charge and the false tax return account. Meanwhile, in October, Anné Minard acknowledged her own guilt regarding the embezzlement and false tax return counts.
One particularly notable aspect of the plea agreement reached is that the Minards have agreed to provide truthful testimony in upcoming hearings related to the case. This agreement could, potentially, shed more light on the insidious flow of unauthorized fund diversions that embroiled the non-profits and action committees previously allied with Lee Chatfield. Amidst a landscape where public trust in political funding is often hanging by a thread, the Minards' admissions and future testimonies might offer a clearer look into the mechanisms of political finance and who stands to lose or gain when laws are bent or broken.
