LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Megan Symonds was assigned to the Lakeview Put up of the Michigan State Police in late August 2016, having simply accomplished 22 grueling weeks of coaching with the MSP Trooper Academy.
Now she was a probationary trooper – or a “cub,” as trainees are recognized – and she or he would spend months with a discipline coaching officer studying the fundamentals of find out how to carry out the job.
For her first 9 weeks, Symonds rode with Sgt. Aaron McCormick, who, earlier than being promoted to sergeant, instructed investigators, “I didn’t see anything wrong with like moving around to the next phase.”
However that subsequent part of coaching would result in a authorized and emotional quagmire for this former trooper we now know as Megan Moryc, who twice has been fired from the division and fought within the courts for reinstatement – all as a result of she grew to become romantically entangled together with her second coaching supervisor, former Trooper Trevin Antcliff.
Former Michigan State Police Trooper Megan Moryc throughout an interview with 6 Information Investigates in 2024. (WLNS)
MSP first fired Moryc, 40, in 2021 after accusing her of bodily and sexually assaulting three of her fellow troopers throughout a drunken outing at a union-sponsored occasion in Traverse Metropolis in 2020, however her relationship with Antcliff has been central in practically 4 years of courtroom hearings and inside proceedings that noticed her reinstated after which suspended once more. She was fired a second time on Feb. 13, as a result of MSP officers stated she lied in Antcliff’s divorce listening to.
Moryc stated her job was taken from her due to intercourse discrimination and harassment by the MSP. Antcliff resigned in January 2024, after practically 20 years as a trooper, whereas dealing with a misdemeanor home violence cost and a possible felony cost of perjury from particular prosecutor Newaygo County Prosecutor Rachel Robinson. He was allowed to maintain his state pension.
Michigan State Police Trooper Trevin S. Antcliff. (Photograph courtesy MSP. WLNS)
Since August, the 6 Information Investigates staff has been investigating this dispute between Moryc and the MSP, reviewing lots of of pages of inside investigations, courtroom filings, courtroom opinions, emails and prosecutorial communications.
Moryc has sat for hours of on-camera interviews, however Antcliff, MSP management and officers for the state of Michigan have declined to answer dozens of particular questions from the 6 Information Investigates Group.
This dispute, which at one level reached the Michigan Supreme Courtroom, is chronicled on this ongoing report by 6 Information Investigates a few sexualized “big boys’ club” on the Lakeview Put up of the Michigan State Police.
Evolving ‘friendship’
Throughout her coaching, Moryc and Antcliff had a friendship that grew to become sexual after which romantic. She was finally, in 2017, divorced from Christopher Lee Symonds. She and Antcliff at one level lived collectively in a house she bought close to Ionia. Moryc has accused him of home and sexual violence. She additionally testified at Antcliff’s divorce trial from his second spouse, Nina, a listening to for which each had been accused of perjury, which led to Moryc’s second firing.
Moryc was notified in December that she had been discovered to have dedicated perjury and that termination was really helpful. At her first disciplinary listening to about that cost, on Jan. 7, she instructed the committee she didn’t lie below oath:
Assertion learn by Megan Moryc to a disciplinary committee Jan. 7, 2025. (WLNS)
“The division is perusing [sic] this alleged perjury not as a result of it believes a criminal offense was dedicated however as a result of it’s making an attempt to mitigate its’ [sic] liabilities and to undermine my character and integrity. Let the info stand as they’re,” she stated.
Officers adjourned to contemplate the allegations extra totally, and on Feb. 13, she was known as earlier than one other administrative listening to. This time, there have been no statements from her. She was terminated, which she is once more combating by means of an administrative enchantment course of, which is nothing new for her.
Moryc District Courtroom Register of ActionsDownload
In 2021, Moryc had been charged with two counts of assault and battery and two counts of prison sexual conduct fourth diploma as a result of she touched a minimum of two of the troopers throughout a drunken union gathering on Oct. 13, 2020, in Traverse Metropolis. These troopers complained, MSP investigated, and the Grand Traverse County Prosecutor’s Workplace licensed fees in January 2021.
She entered a “no contest” plea to the 2 counts of assault and battery. The CSC fees had been dismissed as a part of the deal. She was purported to get probation, however the presiding decide wouldn’t settle for the sentencing deal, she stated, and she or he spent 21 days in jail. Then she was promptly fired by the division shortly afterwards.
Moryc offered the 6 Information Investigates Group with lots of of pages of every day opinions filed throughout her probationary interval, exhibiting no skilled issues from both McCormick or Antcliff.
Moryc coaching information reportsDownload
Antcliff instructed investigators Moryc would have superior whether or not the 2 had been concerned sexually or not. “She’s definitely above average, yes,” Antcliff stated in a single 2023 interview.
Antcliff didn’t return repeated messages left for him on his cell quantity related together with his new landscaping enterprise.
How the story started
Megan Moryc, then married, in an interview with HOM-TV in 2016 throughout her Michigan State Police Coaching Academy. (Courtesy HOM-TV. WLNS)
As Moryc’s time at Lakeview grew to become routine, she rented an condominium in Greenville, Mich., and noticed her husband Christopher Lee Symonds, a supervisor at an enormous field retailer close to Marshall, solely on days off, when she would drive greater than 85 miles to spend time with him and the canine they shared.
She says she had been empowered to face up for herself throughout her stint on the academy, which modified the dynamic in her relationship together with her husband. That newfound empowerment and the monetary strains of managing separate households led to arguments.
“It just – it kind of severed,” she stated of her marriage.
As her first marriage collapsed, Moryc’s coaching officer, Antcliff, who was married with 4 youngsters, grew to become a prepared ear.
His listening to her about her relationship, his disclosure of his relationship points, and the harmful work they had been dealing with every day fashioned “this strong bond,” Moryc stated.
Michigan State Police Troopers Trevin Antcliff and Megan Moryc. (Courtesy photograph. WLNS)
“He was like my best friend because I was secluded from all my friends, any support system. I had no support system there, I didn’t,” she stated of her early days at Lakeview and on-the-road coaching with Antcliff.
However that friendship modified.
“He started pursuing more of the physical,” she stated. “[He] would want to come over after work. Bring alcohol and want to, you know, stay up and drink and have a good time. And then this physical relationship formed.”
She stated in an interview with investigators that Antcliff, who had a repute within the division as a “womanizer,” aggressively pursued intercourse together with her.
“Aggressiveness … when I say aggressive, I don’t mean necessarily physical, but the huge push to engage in, you know, a more intimate relationship,” she stated. These advances made her uncomfortable.
“I never wanted to cheat on my husband. I never,” she says. “I wasn’t comfortable. I told him [Antcliff] I wasn’t comfortable.”
Moryc says that didn’t deter Antcliff. She would inform investigators that he had the ability to affect whether or not or not she continued as a state trooper together with his evaluations, however that energy differential was by no means explicitly exploited or talked about. It was, she instructed investigators, “in the back of my mind.”
Quid professional quo
Authorized skilled Wendy Murphy explains “quid pro quo” sexual harassment as unlawful. (Textual content message screenshot. WLNS)
Wendy Murphy, a professor at New England Regulation in Boston and chief of the Ladies and Youngsters’s Advocacy Challenge on the faculty, says the state of affairs described is prohibited below civil rights legal guidelines.
“Quid pro quo sexual harassment doesn’t involve a question of wantedness,” she stated. “It’s per se improper.”
The specter of ending the profession of a subordinate is “inherent in the relationship,” Murphy stated. MSP officers decided in September 2023 that Antcliff had dedicated quid professional quo sexual harassment when he engaged in a sexual relationship with Moryc.
Wendy Murphy, a professor at New England Regulation in Boston and the chief of the Ladies and Youngsters’s Advocacy Challenge on the faculty. (Courtesy Photograph. WLNS)
“After review of the attached PSS investigation, there are several Official Order violations to include Sexual Harassment (Quid Pro Quo), impairing the efficiency of the agency, and the below code of conduct,” the charging doc towards Antcliff reveals.
Unredacted perjury investigationDownload
In her interview with Skilled Requirements Part investigator Particular Lt. Ryan Tabaczka on Aug. 17, 2023, Moryc famous Antcliff inspired her to maintain the sexually intimate relationship secret.
“I definitely remember him telling me that we couldn’t say anything about it because he didn’t want to get fired,” Moryc stated.
Later within the interview, Moryc stated she did have issues about Antcliff retaliating by means of opinions if the sexual relationship was ended.
“It was a concern that, to me, that people would view that or people would suspect or think that I passed because of him,” she stated. “Now, was there concern that if I didn’t continue the relationship, he would score me badly? That was at the back of my mind, too. Like, if I try to break things off or upset him, could he all of a sudden start failing me? Yep.”
Moryc instructed Tabaczka she didn’t really feel she might complain in regards to the state of affairs.
“I didn’t feel like I could,” she stated. “My sergeant at the time suspected and would joke around and say, ‘One day I’m going to find out the truth.’”
Michigan State Police Sgt. Aaron McCormick. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained by means of FOIA. WLNS)
Considerations about ‘womanizer’
McCormick instructed investigators he suspected an inappropriate relationship was occurring between Antcliff and Moryc. He confronted Antcliff, who he stated by no means instantly denied or admitted there was a sexual relationship between him and Moryc, as a substitute accusing McCormick of spreading rumors in regards to the two. McCormick says that the cellphone dialog ended their friendship.
An MSP investigation that closed in September 2023 decided Antcliff had denied the dialog with McCormick occurred, however investigators decided Antcliff’s claims had been “untrue.”
McCormick additionally stated he made the Put up’s command employees conscious of his suspicions. That included Lakeview Put up Commander Capt. Kevin Sweeney, who instructed investigators he was unaware of the inappropriate relationship.
“No,” Sweeney stated. “I never heard or was made aware of when the two of them, you know, started to hook up, quote unquote.”
However there have been issues amongst officers about assigning Moryc to Antcliff as a result of he was recognized to be a “womanizer.”
“We felt that we can’t consider what are essentially rumors and conjecture in how we do our assignments,” Lt. Rob Davis instructed investigators about assigning Moryc to Antcliff.
Davis stated that in one assembly the place the position of Moryc was thought of, one other command employees member, whom he didn’t establish, referred to the state of affairs as “putting a wolf in the hen house or something like that.”
Murphy, the regulation professor, says the data among the many MSP management of Antcliff’s being a “womanizer” meant they’d an obligation to maintain him away from ladies, “period.” By failing to take action, they opened up a authorized drawback below federal civil rights regulation, often called Title VII, she says.
Murphy’s interview (beneath) was performed by phone on January 1, 2025. Just a little greater than 7 minutes have been faraway from the interview as a result of the questioning was based mostly on complicated and finally irrelevant audio from one other interview performed by MSP investigators and Moryc.
“What you’re really saying is these regulations under Title 7 and under state civil rights laws, they’re very explicit that you have a duty once you are on notice, you have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the harm from happening again,” she says. “Not only to the individual that it happened to the first time, but to people in that class. So not just to that one woman, but to all women. So really it opens up another layer of liability.”
Murphy stated it doesn’t matter if the “notice” is “rumor,” as Davis stated.
“If the rumor is specific about who it is, what the person did – the credibility of the information is corroborated by awareness of other similar problems,” she says. “It’s not just a rumor. It’s a highly credible package of information. We use the word rumor loosely, sometimes to dismiss things we know about.”
‘Male-dominated space’
A information report from Meridian Township’s HOM-TV from 2016 that includes Recruit Megan Symonds, who, after her divorce in 2017, returned to her maiden title, Megan Moryc. (Courtesy HOM-TV.)
Even when Moryc had needed to file a criticism, the academy had enforced a key factor into the cadets’ psyche.
“They made it so clear – chain of command. You respect the chain of command. You don’t step out of the lines. You don’t report, like a huge thing. Like you were afraid to report something and become a target,” Moryc stated.
“You suffer in silence. Just deal with it. You’re a recruit. You’re nothing. You’re expendable. We can fire you at any time.”
“They could effectively terminate our employment at any time, and I worked so hard.”
The lack of the job, she stated, would additionally place her already precarious marriage right into a extra important monetary disaster.
“I did not feel I could go to anybody because of the perception, because of how they treated us in the academy,” she stated.
One other concern in her thoughts was his tenure. He joined the MSP in 2004.
Megan Moryc, then married, in an interview with HOM-TV in 2016 throughout her Michigan State Police Coaching Academy. (Courtesy HOM-TV. WLNS)
Michigan State Police Trooper Trevin S. Antcliff. (Photograph courtesy MSP. WLNS)
Undated pictures of former Michigan State Police Trooper Trevin Antcliff in uniform. (Courtesy Photograph. WLNS)
Michigan State Police Troopers Trevin Antcliff and Megan Moryc. (Courtesy photograph. WLNS)
“So, who are they going to believe?” she requested. “This trooper, with 15 years in – or this, this female coming into our space and this male-dominated, white-male-dominated post this, this probationary trooper. Who are you going to believe?” Moryc stated in hindsight she believes Antcliff would present up at her condominium with alcohol to “lower the inhibitions.”
“Because that was the theme of the rest of our relationship,” she stated. “Yep, as a result of that is the primary time he requested to come back over to my condominium was, ‘I’ll convey the alcohol. I make a fantastic martini. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. I’ve received all this liquor.’
“And, yep, he shows up at my place with all this alcohol and starts mixing drinks the very first time he came over. Yep, everything was centered around drinking.”
Moryc stands 5 toes 5 and weighs about 155 kilos. Antcliff is 6-3 and, she estimates, 250 kilos. Not solely did their our bodies metabolize alcohol in another way due to their genders, however science exhibits the scale distinction would additionally have an effect.
‘Bonding’ relationship
Former Michigan State Police Trooper Trevin Antcliff with one of many canine that lived with he and former Trooper Megan Moryc. That is an undated photograph. (Courtesy Photograph. WLNS)
Moryc says troopers commonly bonded by means of bodily sparring, which allowed them to maintain their self-defense ways and coaching sharp. She characterised it as “roughhousing” and says it was a daily function of interactions amongst troopers.
That roughhousing was additionally a key side within the improvement of the connection with Antcliff, she stated. As they might drink, in addition they would wrestle or roughhouse, utilizing self-defense ways on one another. The rising emotional bond, mixed with physicality and alcohol, led to intercourse, she stated.
Antcliff, she stated, inspired her to not talk about the budding sexual relationship with different troopers. He additionally vacillated between encouraging her to take care of a sexual relationship together with her husband on the time, whereas additionally expressing jealousy about her relationship together with her husband.
And though some troopers on the Lakeview Put up instructed investigators they suspected the connection had develop into sexually intimate, solely McCormick confronted Antcliff in regards to the state of affairs. Nobody confronted them or requested instantly.
As Moryc accomplished coaching and have become a full highway officer, the connection continued. She stated she isn’t certain precisely when it shifted from finest buddies with intercourse to a “dating” relationship.
“We never really defined lines,” she says. “I would say the most defining point in this relationship that started out as, you know, we were best friends, was, you know, in late like December 2017 – when I was divorced and we were looking at getting a house together. Before then, we hadn’t really because we were best friends, and I don’t really know how to define it.”
Perjury fees
A transcript of Megan Moryc’s testimony throughout a divorce listening to in Montcalm County in 2018. (WLNS)
The undefined nature of that relationship at that time is a key piece of proof MSP investigators say underpins perjury allegations towards Moryc and Antcliff that they assert the duo gave in Montcalm County as a part of a divorce continuing between Antcliff and his second spouse, Nina.
Screenshot of e-mail between Michigan State Police Skilled Requirements Part investigator and then-Newaygo County Prosecutor Ellsworth ‘Value’ Keep on decision of former MSP Trooper Trevin Antcliff’s home violence plea settlement. (Obtained by way of FOIA by Megan Moryc and shared with 6 Information Investigations. WLNS)
A particular prosecutor from the Newaygo County Prosecutor’s Workplace declined to authorize fees towards Moryc for perjury within the case. The workplace was ready to concern a warrant for Antcliff, however didn’t after he entered a responsible plea to home violence in a separate case in Montcalm County.
Newaygo County FOIA AntcliffDownload
That plea below a particular Michigan regulation permits first-time home violence perpetrators to serve a time period of probation with counseling and different oversight. If a person completes the probation, your complete case is sealed, and the conviction is faraway from public information.
On the time he left MSP in January 2024, Antcliff was dealing with inside disciplinary motion by MSP officers over the alleged perjury and his arrest for home violence on Dec. 7, 2023. A particular prosecutor was ready to cost him with felony perjury fees over his testimony within the divorce continuing.
As a result of none of these occurred, he retained his pension when he walked out the door.
HELP IS AVAILABLE
When you or somebody is experiencing home or sexual violence, there may be assist.
In case you are in rapid hazard, name 911 or your native regulation enforcement company.
For help associated to home violence, name: 1-800-799-7233
For help associated to sexual assault, name: 800-656-HOPE (4673)
6 Information Digital Producer Shajaka Shelton and 6 Information Digital Content material Supervisor Duncan Phenix contributed to this report.
