Using a signed affidavit from the estranged wife of Rep. Robert Bezotte (R-Howell), a Brighton lawyer alleged today that the third-term House member, who filed to run for re-election in the 50th District this week, falsified his residence on his affidavit of identity, according to documents obtained by MIRS.
The affidavit, signed by Rep. Bezotte’s wife Shelia Bezotte on April 24, and the accompanying complaint submitted by attorney Daniel Wholihan (who is chair of Michigan’s 7th District GOP and is married to one of the Republican candidates running for Bezotte’s seat) have been submitted to the Livingston County Clerk, who did not respond to a request for comment this afternoon.
Both documents together allege that Rep. Bezotte’s April 22, 2024, campaign filing and affidavit of identity, in which he listed his residence at the Howell home his estranged wife is currently residing at, are falsified.
“I have reason to believe that Mr. Bezotte falsified his affidavit of identity in terms of his residence,” Wholihan wrote in his complaint. “It is known that Mr. Bezotte has spent much of the past five months in either Arizona or in Illinois, even though he currently is a sitting Representative in the State House. In addition, when he is not dwelling in Arizona or Illinois, he is staying at the ‘mailing address’ … ” located on his affidavit of identity, “which is not what he claims as his residential address.”
Bezotte’s campaign team did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the claim and the affidavit, Bezotte’s listed mailing address is the home of one of his daughters, Wendy.
While that address is also within the 50th District, Wholihan’s claim alleges that a false statement in the affidavit is perjury and should be a disqualifier from the ballot.
“Livingston County is a hallmark of election integrity,” the claim reads. “When a candidate falsifies his or her residency on the Affidavit of Identity, it is proper that the County Clerk disqualifies that individual from appearing on the ballot.”
Wholihan alleged that after Rep. Bezotte’s wife filed for divorce in November 2023, Bezotte left his “marital home” and had “abandoned that home for months, including all the 30 days before the filing deadline of April 23, 2024.”
The affidavit signed by Shelia Bezotte, who said she resides at the same address Bezotte put on his affidavit of identity, included a statement that “I personally know that Bob Bezotte is NOT residing at the (residential address).”
Shelia Bezotte said her estranged husband moved out of the house several days after Dec. 16, 2023, “and has not returned.
“I am also aware that Bob Bezotte has not spent any evenings in the bed at the house . . . because Bob Bezotte and I are going through a divorce,” she said.
Shelia Bezotte said in the affidavit that she was writing it because “of my fear of safety concerns. If Bob Bezotte states on his affidavit that he resides in the same house I reside at … he may reenter the marital house.”
Kristina Lyke, a 50th District Republican candidate who was previously endorsed by Bezotte (and who is married to attorney Dan Wholihan, who filed the complaint), said she doesn’t know where Bezotte is actually living, but it wasn’t at his marital house.
Lyke told MIRS that prior to her decision to run for the seat, Bezotte and his wife were long-time friends of hers, and actually introduced her to her husband.
“All I know is that Bob’s not speaking the truth here,” she said.
Lyke said comments made by Bezotte in a MIRS article yesterday, that she got into the HD-50 race because GOP candidate Jason Woolford was being untruthful about where he lived, were untrue.
Woolford and Bezotte were both interviewed in connection with Bezotte’s decision to run again, after he previously endorsed both Woolford and Lyke.
“To go and move because you couldn’t win a race over in the 48th, and to come into our area, that’s not why I ran,” she said. “I ran because I believe I’m the best candidate.”
Lyke said she believes Bezotte has “put a circus in Livingston County.
“And that’s sad, because that’s not what our county is all about,” she said. “Our county is about relationships and building together and, you know, going and getting a cup of coffee with somebody or . . . if you need to borrow a cup of sugar because you’re making cookies. That’s the people we have in our county.”
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