By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
In what seems to be a “sign of the times,” an alleged assault April 14th at a Republican Party on the evening before a leadership meeting at the Doherty Hotel led to the Clare Police becoming involved.
No local information was available about the incident.
Clare Police Chief David Saad said, “A report has been submitted to the Clare County Prosecutor for review and is pending.”
Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis said, “It is still under review. It pends [is pending] requested follow up by law enforcement.
The publication, Bridge Michigan posted a full article about the incident, which they reported was “an alleged assault” between “Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett and Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis.”
The reported that the incident stemmed from an “escalating proxy battle between new state GOP Chair Kristina Karamo and former ally Matthew DePerno, party insiders say.”
Sackett reportedly to Bridge she had filed a police complaint about the incident.
Sackett and Pehlis represent “competing factions of the Michigan GOP, and according to the Bridge article, “seemed to be arguing over an alleged move by Sackett to purge Karamo loyalists from the Kalamazoo GOP.”
The argument apparently escalated when a cigarette and phone were knocked out of Pehlis’s hand by Sackett.
“There’s big internal disputes within the party right now, and Karamo has done nothing to bring the party together,” said DePerno. an attorney who ran against Karamo for state party chair and is now defending the Kalamazoo GOP in a lawsuit filed by two other women forced from the county party’s executive committee.
The whole incident, which happened on the outside patio at the Doherty, was caught on a video, which Bridge, MI obtained.
The Bridge article reported in-depth about the break between the two Republican factions.