Betsy DeVos was President Trump’s Secretary of Education. During her tenure, she focused heavily on reforming sexual misconduct rules for schools and universities to protect men who are accused. DeVos actually accused schools of operating “kangaroo courts” because they were acting to protect women. She defined sexual harassment to limit what could be included and relieved education institutions of liability for neglect and failure to protect students.
Bill Schuette was the Congressional representative for District 10 for three terms before he ran for US Senate and lost. He served two years in the Michigan Senate before becoming the Attorney General of Michigan from 2011 to 2018 and ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor against Gretchen Whitmer in 2018. He’s a fairly typical conservative Republican, opposing gay marriage, abortion, legalization of marijuana, and the Affordable Care Act.
He also denigrates professional women while they are working as shown in this video where he sexually harasses a camera operator insinuating she would want to do more than just film him. You can judge for yourself if women can expect to be treated as his professional equal. In his defense, Schuette said the video was heavily edited. The Detroit News obtained the entire clip and verified the accuracy of the clip, refuting his defense.
Gary Rolls was a Republican county commissioner in Kent County, Michigan. In 2012, after he won his Republican primary in a state House race, a 28-year-old woman came forward claiming he had sexually abused her since she was nine years-old until she was twenty-three. But never fear, his arrest was dignified. He was charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault, tampering with evidence, and using a computer to commit a crime.
The woman testified that she suffered from migraines, high blood pressure, anxiety, and nightmares as a result of the abuse. She said he threatened her and since she saw him associating with police and other powerful people, he could carry out his threats so she submitted to his demands.
“He made me do things that made me physically sick and he didn’t care. If I cried, he told me to stop because I was weak. If I said no, he told me I wasn’t allowed to tell him no because he was the adult and I was the child,” she said.
“There are no words to truly reflect the pain, the fears, and the lifelong scars that I have endured because of him.”
He claimed she sixteen or older when the relationship began, but there were receipts on a credit card dating back to 2000. She claimed he started taking nude pictures of her when she was fifteen, but he used his iPad to delete them which is where the obstruction and using a computer to commit a crime come from. However, they did prove she lied about a photo he showed her She said he showed it to her in 1996, but the paper was not available until 2004.
He pleaded guilty to one lesser charge, fourth-degree sexual assault, illegally using a computer, and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to one year in jail. He served less than that and also had his restitution cut in half.
Paul Bailey was the sheriff of Berrien County. While Sheriff, ten women sued the county alleging that four deputies had sexually assaulted them, demanding sexual favors for money or other benefits. When the suit became public, five more women came forward. Throughout the controversy, Bailey denied that it happened, then said that the deputies had already resigned or were fired, and took no accountability for the apparent negligent training and supervision that allowed this to happen. The County was named in the suit for failing to properly supervise, monitor, and investigate complaints.
Unfortunately, the lawsuit was dismissed because the 3-year statute of limitations had expired.
George Roche III was president of Hillsdale College, one of the conservative colleges that pledges to return conservative values. He was a friend with the leading lights of conservative thought, including William F. Buckley and Steve Forbes. He was at the apex of his career when his daughter-in-law killed herself, Her death brought out his nineteen-year affair with his son’s wife.
This seems consensual, but there is a power imbalance in that he hired her and her husband to work at Hillsdale. Nepotism, but also power. After his wife’s death, George Roche IV went to the university provost and reported the affair. He resigned as president, but claims his daughter-in-law lied. He also divorced his first wife when she got cancer.
Michael Flory was the head of the Michigan Federation of Young Republicans when he raped a woman attending the same national convention of Young Republicans. They were dancing and partying when she felt drunk and headed back to her room. He escorted her and then raped her.
Flory was an early rising star in the party. When he was just 18, he gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in 1992. When the woman came forward, he used his influence to trash her reputation. Before the trial, more women came forward.
Gerald ‘Ajax’ Ackerman was the popular “law and order” mayor of Port Huron who was often lovingly profiled in the media thanks to his biker persona. He was “Citizen of the Year.” He was convicted of exposing himself to several children. He was also convicted of sexually abusing three underage girls, 8, 11, and 12.
He appealed his convictions but lost. He was paroled in 2020.
Defendant Gerald S. Ackerman appeals by right his convictions 1 for sexually abusing three girls under the age of thirteen. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of twenty-five to thirty-eight years imprisonment for four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, M.C.L. § 750.520b(1); eighteen to thirty-six years for another count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct; seven to twenty years each for two counts of child sexually abusive activity, M.C.L. § 750.145c(2); and seven to fifteen years each for three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, M.C.L. § 750.520c(1)(a). We affirm.
Findlaw: People v Ackerman, Court of Appeals of Michigan
South Bend Tribune, 15 Jun 1994The Detroit Jewish News April 10, 1988Livingston County Daily Press and Argus Howell, Michigan · Wednesday, January 08, 2020
Republican Sexual Predators 