Michigan Rep. Neil Friske says he was “set up” after his 3 a.m. arrest

A Republican state lawmaker arrested in Michigan last week claims he was set up, but he offered no evidence of the alleged efforts to engineer his ouster or of the shady characters allegedly behind the plot.

Details surrounding the arrest of Lansing MP Neil Friske in the early hours of Thursday morning remained unclear nearly a week later. Police responded to reports of possible gunfire and took him into custody around 2:45 a.m. A police spokesman said he was suspected of “committing a serious crime.”

The Michigan Information and Research Service, an independent local news outlet, reported, citing anonymous sources, that the incident allegedly involved Friske chasing an adult dancer with a gun in his hand after an argument.

Records obtained by the Detroit Free Press Lansing police sought sexual assault, assault and a weapons charge against Friske, but he was released without charge Friday morning while the case remains under investigation. A heavily redacted police report says investigators are investigating possible first-degree sexual abuse, the most serious sexual assault charge in the state.

During an appearance on a conservative radio show on Monday, Friske protested his innocence and suggested he had been made a scapegoat.

“The way events unfolded, it was absolutely clear to me that something was wrong and that something was being framed and tried to be pinned on me and that a trap had been set up for me,” he said on Your defending fathersand added that he could not go into the “details of things”.

“That’s how people tick. It’s so frustrating. I find it unbelievable how desperate people are and that they will go to such lengths to destroy someone.”

According to NPR affiliate WKAR, Friske said at a candidate forum in the city of Petoskey that same day that he had done “absolutely nothing wrong.”

“And I am sure that once the police investigation is complete, I will be completely exonerated,” he insisted. “So far, this has not been a miscarriage of justice, but a media miscarriage.”

Friske, who is seeking a second term in the Michigan House of Representatives, had previously suggested that the timing of his arrest was suspicious. On Thursday, his campaign claimed in a statement that it was “highly suspicious” that he was arrested “just before mail-in ballots are released” and the day “after an unknown phone number conducted a poll on the 107th District race between Representative Friske and our Deep State-connected opponent.”

It was not immediately clear whether “our opponent” meant Friske’s Republican challenger in the primary, a small business owner named Parker Fairbairn, or the Democrat either of them is likely to face in the general election, Jodi Decker.

In a statement on Friday, Fairbairn said Friske was “presumed innocent until proven guilty” but described his rival’s voting behavior as “catastrophic and immoral.”

Fairbairn added: “Neil deserves his time in court and the people of the 107th deserve better than Neil.”

The campaign’s statement did not provide any specific details about the allegations against Friske, but noted, “As many of us know, Representative Friske consistently exercises his Second Amendment rights.”

Friske (pronounced “Frisk-ee”, after the Free Press) was elected in 2022, defeating Decker with just over 56 percent of the vote. He is a member of the Michigan House Freedom Caucus, a group in the Democratic-led chamber that describes itself as “focused on traditional conservative values ​​and individual freedom.”

The Republican primary in Michigan will take place on August 6.