Alex Constantine - August 29, 2013
Detroit News, August 8, 2014
LANSING — A member of the Michigan Republican State Committee is facing criminal charges in Green Bay, Wis., in connection with a March incident involving a high-powered weapon and his estranged wife.
No shots were fired, and nobody was injured.
Doug Sedenquist, 51, of Escanaba faces a felony charge of refusing to comply with a police officer’s attempt to take him into custody. He also faces misdemeanor charges of sending a threatening message and disorderly conduct.
In addition to his state Republican post, Sedenquist is vice chairman of the Delta County Republican Party and has co-hosted a morning show on a Manistique radio station.
According to a complaint filed in Brown County Circuit Court, Sedenquist telephoned his ex-wife on March 3 in Green Bay and asked her why she had left work early. The woman told police “she realized the defendant was in Green Bay and in her vicinity,” and “he made statements about killing himself during the telephone conversation.”
Sedenquist’s ex-wife was frightened and called 911. Green Bay police surrounded Sedenquist’s truck in a parking lot a short time later, the complaint says. Sedenquist sat in the driver’s seat with the rifle pointed at his stomach and refused to put the gun down and exit the vehicle for close to 30 minutes before surrendering to police, the complaint alleges.
Sedenquist’s home phone rang busy Wednesday, and he did not reply to a message left on his cell phone.
“I do not comment on my client’s pending charges,” said his Wisconsin attorney, Chad Thomas.
Michigan Republican Party communications director Darren Littell declined to comment, citing the pending criminal case.
Central committee members are elected from local congressional districts.
Sedenquist, a tea party activist, made news in the past when he defended controversial anti-gay comments made by Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema, and when he made other controversial comments on radio and on Facebook. He posted that U.S. Sens. Carl Levin, a Detroit Democrat, and Debbie Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat, “were willing to sign away your Second Amendment rights to the United Nations.”
Sedenquist is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 3 in Green Bay.
