A disgraced Michigan township supervisor who resigned from office after he was caught in an alleged child sex sting operation shockingly notched enough votes to reclaim his old seat during Tuesday’s election.
Former Delta Township Supervisor Ken Fletcher won back his seat after capturing nearly 89% of the votes cast, according to preliminary results — defeating two write-in candidates who entered the race following his resignation on Sept. 3, the same day he was arrested, local outlets reported.
The Democrat, who was supervisor for more than a decade, is accused of engaging in sexually explicit conversations with an officer posing as a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr, following a sting conducted by regional, state and local law enforcement agencies.
Police said the conversation later shifted off the app to text messages, where Fletcher expressed his desire to meet the teen decoy at the Lansing Mall to talk, though he never arranged a get-together, according to court documents obtained by WILX 10 News.
Fletcher, whose name was kept on the ballot due to state election law, now has until Jan. 1, 2025, to decide if he will accept or decline the position, according to local outlets.
Delta Township Clerk Mary Clark, who has been serving as interim supervisor since Fletcher resigned, said the township board will have 45 days to appoint a new supervisor if Fletcher stays out of office, the Lansing State Journal reported.
“There are three choices on his part, and so it’s really kind of presumptive of us to act or decide to act in a certain way before we know what is happening with that position,” Clark said.
Fletcher’s lawyer, Michael Nichols, said his client was “pleasantly surprised” by the election results, adding that he hasn’t thought about politics since his arrest.
“The biggest question I think for Ken Fletcher is, is this the right thing for not just me but for the community, am I still the best person for the job,” Nichols told WILX 10 News.
Fletcher was charged with accosting a child for immoral purposes and using a computer to commit a crime, the outlet reported.
The disgraced supervisor, who is out on bond, pleaded not guilty to the two felonies, court records show.
