(The Center Square) – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged former union leader Jonathan Byrd, 40, of Battle Creek with one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Byrd worked for the Michigan Laborers’ District Council, of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, where he pushed forward the repeal of Michigan’s right-to-work law after the alleged incident.
In April of 2022, Byrd allegedly forcibly moved the victim’s hand onto his penis at a social gathering in Kalamazoo County.
Nessel said that Byrd and the victim worked in the same occupational field, and Byrd “held a position of much influence in the Capitol and around the state in the realm of government and politics that provided a significant power imbalance between him and the victim.”
Following the incident at the fundraiser, Rep. Jim Haadsma,(D-Battle Creek), “mediated” a meeting between Byrd and the victim, the Detroit News reported.
“In the state of Michigan we will hold sexual predators accountable no matter how well-connected they are and irrespective of whatever prominence they enjoy in the dealings of our government,” Nessel said in a statement.
Byrd has since resigned from his employment as director of external affairs for the Michigan Laborers’ District Council of LiUNA and as president of the South-Central Michigan Area Labor Council of the Michigan AFL-CIO.
A court date has yet to be scheduled.
The charge follows the Michigan Senate passing Senate Bill 169, which aims to require employers to share employees’ names, home addresses, cell phone numbers, work address locations, and personal email addresses with labor representatives every 90 days.
The House hasn’t yet passed the bill.
Michigan Freedom Fund Communications director Mary Drabik said Democrats have been mostly silent on the charges.
“Whitmer and her allies tout their record of cracking down on sexual assault when it’s easy, but when it means calling out their friends, their silence is disappointing,” Drabik said in a statement. “Victims of sexual assault deserve justice, not to have their stories buried in holiday news dumps.”
