Friske arrested for possible sexual abuse

A heavily redacted case report obtained by the Free Press on Monday said police are treating the investigation into Republican state Rep. Neil Friske of Charlevoix as an investigation into possible first-degree sexual abuse.

Friske, who has not been charged with a crime pending an investigation into an incident early Thursday morning in Lansing, said on a Michigan radio show Monday that he was being “blamed” without explaining how he came to that conclusion.

“Just from the way events unfolded, it was clear to me that something was wrong and that I had been framed, that someone was trying to frame me and that I had been set up,” Friske said on the conservative radio show “Your Defending Fathers,” hosted by Randy “Trucker Randy” Bishop, a former Republican county official in Antrim County.

More:Friske talks about arrest at event in Petoskey: “I’m glad” not to be in jail

Friske said he could not provide details of the incident, but said he had done nothing wrong and had no plans to give up his seat. He said he planned to return to Lansing on Monday to participate in the final week of the legislative session before the summer recess, starting Tuesday. In a letter his campaign sent to supporters on Monday, Friske said he was arrested on “false charges” and expected to be exonerated.

The case report, filed Thursday morning a few hours after Lansing police arrested Friske, is almost entirely redacted. The unredacted portion indicates that police were treating the case as an investigation into first-degree sexual abuse, a crime defined in part as sexual penetration by force or violence.

Friske was released from the Lansing police jail on Friday morning. He was not charged with any crime. It is not clear what charges, if any, will be brought against the congressman in his first term.

Scott Hughes, a spokesman for Ingham County Attorney John Dewane, did not have an update on the status of the investigation when asked Monday to estimate how long it would take for officials to decide whether to file charges.

Records obtained by the Free Press last week show that Lansing police filed sexual assault, assault and a weapons charge against Friske, but did not specify the severity. The report shows that at least during the investigation phase, police treated the case as first-degree sexual misconduct, the most serious of the sexual assault offenses.

Edwar Zeineh, Friske’s attorney in Lansing, did not immediately respond to news that Lansing police were investigating him for first-degree sexual abuse. But Zeineh said Friday his office is conducting its own investigation to convince prosecutors that Friske should not be charged. He said he hopes to prove his client is innocent.

Lansing police said a Free Press request under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act was largely denied due to the ongoing investigation. “The records requested are inextricably linked to sensitive information, disclosure would interfere with ongoing law enforcement investigative processes,” a department official wrote.

Friske was arrested around 2:45 a.m. Thursday in the 2000 block of Windbreak Lane in Lansing, Jordan Gulkis, chief of public information for the Lansing Police Department, told the Free Press. Gulkis said officers were initially dispatched to the nearby 2100 block of Forest Road to respond to reports of a man with a gun, “as well as possible shots fired,” she said in an email.

Friske is a first-term Republican representative representing Michigan’s 107th congressional district, which includes all of Charlevoix and Emmet counties and parts of Cheboygan, Chippewa and Mackinac counties, and spans both peninsulas. He has filed for re-election and is seeking a second term in the House in the fall. According to his website, he is the owner of Friske and Sons Property Management.

In Monday’s radio interview, Friske seemed to suggest that his political opponents were somehow behind Thursday’s events.

“That’s how these people work,” Friske said.

“I just don’t understand how someone who claims to be an upstanding Christian person can lead such a campaign and then live with themselves.”

He added: “People see through it immediately. It’s a centuries-old game. It’s not even new.”

Parker Fairbairn, a small business owner from Harbor Springs, has filed to run against Friske in the Republican primary in August.

Fairbairn said in an email Monday that the idea that he had anything to do with Friske’s arrest was “absurd.”

“My campaign was focused exclusively on issues and legislation and contained no personal attacks,” Fairbairn said.

In addition to Friske and Fairbairn, Jodi Decker of Sault Ste. Marie has also filed to run as a Democrat for the 107th district. Decker ran as a Democratic candidate against Friske in the 2022 election and lost by about 6,000 votes, or 13 percentage points.

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