Lawmaker's 'Painful Squeeze' May Yield Assault Charge

TROY, MI – State Sen. Marty Knollenberg faces possible assault and battery charges for allegedly squeezing Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown’s arm in a painful manner Wednesday at an event that followed the State of the County address.

After Brown, 49, made a preliminary complaint against Knollenberg, 52, a Republican lawmaker from Troy, an Oakland County sheriff’s deputy gave her a police escort from the Auburn Hills Marriott Pontiac hotel to her car, according to media reports.

Brown told The Detroit News she was “shaking so much (she) couldn’t write” Wednesday night after the alleged encounter. She declined to outline specifics, but said she reveal more in a full formal complaint.

Though it’s unclear what Knollenberg and Brown, who had previously served together in the Michigan House of Representatives, talked about, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe told The Oakland Press the the two engaged in “a heated discussion” that left Brown “very upset.”

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A preliminary report said that Knollenberg tried to talk Brown as they were leaving the address and heading to an after-party in the hotel. When Brown declined to speak to him, Knollenberg reportedly grabbed her arm and refused to release it until onlookers got involved.

Knollenberg insisted through a spokesperson that the whole thing is a misunderstanding.

Amber McCann, a spokesperson for Senate Republicans, said Knollenberg merely attempted to shake hands with Brown, and that he “denies any aggressive behavior” toward Brown.

McCann went on to say that Brown, a former lawmaker from West Bloomfield well-known as an outspoken feminist, is “very passionate, as you know,” the Detroit Free Press said.

In a nationally sensational case when she was in the Michigan House, Brown and another female legislator lost their speaking privileges for a day in sanctions handed down by the chamber’s Republican caucus. Brown was disciplined after using the word vagina in a floor debate about a bill that would have so strictly regulated abortion clinics that Brown predicted many would close. The other lawmaker referred to a vasectomy.

Knollenberg has been the subject of unflattering headlines, too.

Late last year, he apologized for a “clunky choice of words” when he said in a committee meeting that officials crafting policies to turn around failing public schools that predominantly serve low-income African-American children won’t succeed because they “can’t make an African-American white.”

Whether to charge Knollenberg with assault rests with Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, who is expected to receive investigators’ report next week.