Lansing — Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said it will not issue charges against a former state lawmaker arrested in Lansing in 2024 after a two-year investigation resulted in what prosecutors deemed insufficient evidence.
The investigation stems from the June 20, 2024 arrest of former state Rep. Neil Friske, R-Charlevoix, after Lansing police responded to “a report of a male with a gun, as well as possible shots that were fired.”
Michigan State Police later became involved and the case was eventually forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office by the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office after the discovery of additional evidence. That evidence indicated, Nessel’s office said in a statement, that Friske had “allegedly engaged in similar conduct, namely paying money for sex, on several occasions in multiple jurisdictions, from Lansing into Northern Michigan, as well as another allegation of sexual assault.”
While the investigation was “exhaustive,” Nessel’s office said, it “did not yield sufficient evidence required to prove the specific allegations beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
“Our office can only proceed with criminal charges and prosecution when its prosecutors hold a reasonable belief that they will be able to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the conduct alleged,” said Danny Wimmer, a spokesman for Nessel. “Allegations such as those investigated here are often difficult to bring before a judge and jury.”
Less than seven weeks after the arrest, Friske lost his reelection bid in a Republican primary to Parker Fairbairn, who now represents the state House district.
Friske did not return a message seeking comment. An attorney who had commented on Friske’s behalf in the past said he no longer represents the former northern Michigan lawmaker.
Friske claimed in a radio interview a couple of days after his arrest that he “was being framed.”
“I can’t really comment on the specifics of things,” Friske said during the radio interview. “But … just the way events unfolded it was very clear to me that something wasn’t right and I was being framed and trying to be framed and being set up.”
Wimmer said the office had witnesses who were willing to participate in the state prosecution and others who were not.
“While our office does believe the accusations in these reports, prosecutors did not believe there was adequate evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt before a judge and jury,” Wimmer said.
Records from the police investigation into Friske, obtained by The Detroit News through a public records request, give further details about a 911 call at 2:44 a.m. on June 20, 2024 to Lansing police that prompted the investigation at Friske’s Lansing condominium as well as subsequent allegations that broadened its reach.
All names were redacted from the documents provided to The News, which had requested any reports from Nessel’s office related to the investigation of Friske by the Michigan State Police and the Lansing Police Department.
The reports indicated police were called by a woman on June 20, 2024 who had come to a man’s Lansing home after the two had previously exchanged messages about costs for sex. The woman told police she believed the man had gone through her purse while she was in the shower, according to the report.
When she confronted him, the woman told police, according to the report, they had an argument and a physical altercation in which she said she was bent over the bed while trying to push him away. Parts of the interaction were redacted in the report obtained by The News. The woman was able to push away and began calling 911, according to the report, at which point he grabbed what the woman believed to be scissors or a kitchen knife.
The woman said she obtained a laceration on her knee during the incident, according to the report. As she fled the home, the woman told police she took some of the man’s property, including an office bag for “identification purposes.” The police report indicated the bag had office supplies, a computer and $4,000 in cash inside.
The woman said she fled outside, and the man held up a firearm and ordered her to return his things, according to the report. The woman said she ran to her car and began driving away when she encountered police responding to her 911 call. The man pulled up in his own vehicle behind her as she encountered police, the report said.
It does not appear, from the reports, that police found any fired cartridge casings or bullet damage at the Lansing address. They did recover firearms properly registered to the man.
Several days after the Lansing incident, according to the report, a reporter told police two other women in northern Michigan had complaints against the man and one of them was willing to speak with police.
The reporter, Lisa Roose-Church of the Lansing political newsletter MIRS, reached out to Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, who contacted Lansing Police Chief Robert Backus. The Lansing police chief then had his investigators contact Roose-Church, according to the police reports.
Roose-Church on Friday confirmed her role in linking one woman with police.
Michigan State Police interviewed several individuals, including a woman who claimed a man, whose name was redacted, had sexually penetrated her with his finger after she had given him a massage in January 2021. She came forward, according to the report, after hearing about the Lansing incident, with the belief that her experience could assist police.
As part of the investigation, police also detailed in their reports evidence found on a phone indicating a man had several conversations negotiating prices for sex.
Police, according to the reports, also spoke to two women who said they had been paid for sex in 2023 by a man, whose name was redacted in the reports.
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Nessel ends probe of former GOP lawmaker, will not issue charges
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
