Hear Melissa Osborn, Third Woman Accusing Lucido of Sexual Harassment

A third woman is accusing Republican state Sen. Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Twp.) of inappropriate behavior.

Melissa Osborn works for a credit union trade group that lobbies lawmakers for changes in banking laws.

She says her experience with Lucido was eerily similar to that of Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) who last week publicly accused him of touching her in an uncomfortable way and making inappropriate comments about her appearance. 

Click on the player above to hear Melissa Osborn on Detroit Today.

Crain’s Detroit Business published Osborn’s account on Sunday. Osborn says the encounter happened on May 1, 2019 at a daylong conference in Lansing. 

From Crain’s:

Osborn said she suddenly found herself being “uncomfortably” held by the first-term Republican senator from Shelby Township as he started commenting about her red-and-black plaid dress and how it looked on her.

“He was looking at me up and down,” Osborn told Crain’s. “And he stayed there for several minutes, making these comments about my appearance and my look and what he liked about it.”

During the entire interaction, Lucido’s hand remained on what Osborn described as “my lower back/upper butt.”

“He wasn’t cupping my butt, but [his hand] was definitely not really all on my back either,” Osborn said. “It was in a strange spot, like he was toeing the line intentionally but still making me very uncomfortable.”

“It was a very uncomfortable and demeaning situation, and I didn’t know how to get out of it,” says Osborn on Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson.

Lucido refused to comment in the Crain‘s piece. Detroit Today has made multiple attempts to reach Sen. Lucido and has invited him to join the program. His office has not responded to those requests.

Osborn says she decided to go public with her story when she saw Sen. McMorrow’s own story in Crain‘s last week, which followed an account from Allison Donahue, a 22-year-old reporter for the Michigan Advance.

“I just wanted to back them up to say that this is real, and that this happened,” says Osborn, a regulatory and legislative affairs specialist, Michigan Credit Union League and Affiliates. “It just makes you feel powerless when it happens, even if it’s a smaller incident.”

“I’m hoping it will open up a way for women to make a complaint, at least make it safer,” she continues.

Crain‘s Senior Editor Chad Livengood, who reported on Osborn’s account, says it’s unclear for many people in Lansing what recourse to take in these kinds of situations.

“There’s not really a central ethics board at the state Capitol. A lot of other states have an ethics commission. Michigan does not,” Livengood explains.