Charlotte woman charged with falsely accusing deputy of rape will stand trial on 10 felonies

Lansing State Journal

CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte woman charged with accusing an Eaton County Sheriff's Office deputy of rape will stand trial after she waived her preliminary hearing Friday.

Kellie Bartlett, 35, is facing 10 felonies and four misdemeanors in connection with the report police say was false.

Bartlett filed a complaint with Michigan State Police in January, reporting that the deputy had sexually assaulted her in March 2017. The investigation, however, determined Bartlett was a "willing and consenting partner in this act," Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Erik Darling testified in a hearing that led to criminal charges.

Barry County Judge Michael Schipper bound Bartlett's case over to circuit court Friday after Bartlett waived her preliminary hearing. Her case is being heard by a Barry County judge because Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd recused his office.

A second woman, the deputy's ex-girlfriend, Lisa Underhill, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of attempted unlawful posting of a message on a computer. The State Journal is not naming the deputy because he has not been charged with a crime.

Underhill, 48, tried to make the deputy feel frightened and harassed, she said in court Friday as a part of her plea. She's set to be sentenced at 9 a.m. March 26.

She initially was charged with using a computer to commit a crime, conspiracy to have unauthorized access to a computer, conspiracy to commit identity theft, identity theft and stalking. All but stalking are felony charges. All those charges have been dismissed with her no contest plea.

Bartlett and Underhill are accused of creating a fake Facebook profile for the deputy using his personal identifying information, Barry County Prosecutor Julie Nakfoor Pratt said. They also created a fake email address in his name, she said.

Bartlett worked at the sheriff's office from 2008 through December 2017, when she was fired. She was in a relationship with the deputy from late 2015 through spring 2017.

After they broke up, she began stalking the deputy, Darling testified. She repeatedly tried to contact him and his current girlfriend, despite repeated requests to stop.

In January Bartlett told the State Journal she continued to contact the deputy, in part, because she had loaned him money and wanted him to repay it. She said she didn't initially report the alleged sex assault because she thought she'd be accused of lying.

"I felt like I kept getting the treatment that I’m just a scorned woman, that I’m just crazy and I think if I had come out with it at that time it would have looked even worse," Bartlett said. "I think it would have just been chalked up to that.”

She said she decided to report the incident after the sheriff's office fired her because she no longer feared losing her job.

Although the deputy was under investigation for sexual assault, he was never taken off patrol or put on administrative leave, Nakfoor Pratt said. Eaton County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Jerri Nesbitt and Sheriff Tom Reich declined to comment on the deputy's status during the investigation.

Bartlett is charged with:

Two counts of using a computer to commit a crime
Two counts of identity theft
Three counts of unauthorized access to a computer
One count felony conspiracy
One count false report of a felony
Two counts misdemeanor stalking
One count of intentional dissemination of sexually explicit visual material
Two misdemeanor counts of using a computer to commit a crime

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Contact Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.