LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – 40-year-old Jonathan Byrd, 40, of Battle Creek was bound over on one count of fourth degree Criminal Sexual Conduct on Thursday, August 3. Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel made the announcement in a new release on Friday, August 4.
According to the release, Byrd had been a prominent figure in Michigan politics and governmental lobbying on behalf of his employer, the Michigan Laborers District Council, of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA.
“My Department is committed to defending the rights of sexual assault victims,” said Nessel. “We will continue to seek accountability on their behalf regardless of how well-connected a preparator may be and irrespective of whatever prominence they enjoy in the dealings of our government.”
Byrd is alleged to have forcibly moved the victim’s hand onto his penis at a social gathering in Kalamazoo County in April of 2022.
Byrd and the victim worked in the same occupational field, and Byrd held a position of high 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.
Byrd has since resigned from his employment as director of external affairs for the Michigan Laborers’ District Council of LiUNA and his role as president of the South-Central Michigan Area Labor Council of the Michigan AFL-CIO.
His next appearance before the Kalamazoo County Circuit Court has not yet been scheduled.
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