LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Michigan State Police management assigned then-rookie trooper Megan Symonds to be educated by an officer they knew had a fame for “womanizing,” and a “negative history with women,” a supervisor reveals in a witness interview newly offered to six Information Investigates.
Sgt. Scott Ziesman informed an investigator throughout an inner evaluate that supervisors on the MSP’s Lakeview Submit made a calculated resolution in 2016 once they named Trooper Trevin Antcliff as the sector coaching officer (FTO) for the girl we now know as Megan Moryc, then 31, considered one of solely two feminine probationary troopers in her class.
That call, which a authorized knowledgeable urged may depart the MSP liable below federal civil rights legislation, finally put Moryc and Antcliff on a path to a private relationship that will undermine each their careers.
Moryc, 40, has been fired twice by the MSP and has been mired in an ongoing, almost five-year-long authorized tug-of-war to win again her job, which she mentioned was taken due to intercourse discrimination and harassment. The MSP mentioned she broke the legislation and violated coverage and that permitting her again on the drive would pose a threat to her fellow troopers.
Michigan State Police Trooper Timothy Moreno (left) and former Michigan State Police Trooper Megan Moryc (proper). (Courtesy MSP. Obtained via FOIA. WLNS)
Antcliff, 49, was discovered to have sexually harassed Moryc throughout her coaching after which confronted fees of home abuse towards a former girlfriend. He was allowed to depart MSP along with his 20-year pension intact, on account of a state legislation that permits first-time perpetrators of home violence to keep away from a felony file.
Screenshot of e mail between Michigan State Police Skilled Requirements Part investigator and then-Newaygo County Prosecutor Ellsworth ‘Price’ Keep on decision of former MSP Trooper Trevin Antcliff’s home violence plea settlement. (Obtained through FOIA by Megan Moryc and shared with 6 Information Investigates. WLNS)
On July 28, 2025, an arbitrator dominated that her second firing was wrongful and that MSP officers have been appearing with “animus” – hostile intent – of their steady makes an attempt to sever Moryc’s employment as a trooper. She was ordered reinstated with no again pay and help to assist her reacclimate to her job. Nevertheless, it stays unclear if she’s going to return to MSP, as she has to fulfill state licensing necessities and resolve to take action.
Moryc has additionally filed go well with, claiming the division violated her rights in how management has managed her profession and responded to her claims.
Former Michigan State Police Trooper Megan Moryc throughout an interview with 6 Information Investigates in 2024. (WLNS)
Since August 2024, the 6 Information Investigates group, has been investigating this dispute between Moryc and the MSP, reviewing a whole bunch of pages of inner investigations, courtroom filings, courtroom opinions, emails and prosecutorial communications. The quotes on this report are taken straight from video, audio, and transcripts from these investigations.
This dispute, which at one level reached the Michigan Supreme Court docket, is chronicled on this ongoing report by 6 Information Investigates a few sexualized “big boys’ club” on the Lakeview Submit of the Michigan State Police.
Col. James Grady II, the present head of MSP, informed 6 Information Investigates in July that the group takes allegations of sexual harassment significantly, and that they’re totally investigated by inner affairs.
The preliminary resolution
All of that is the direct results of the preliminary resolution to position Moryc with Antcliff in the course of the second part of her FTO program. Transcripts from a number of inner investigations revealed he started to stress her for intercourse inside weeks of being assigned as her supervisor, resulting in a sexual and romantic relationship that ended tumultuously round six years later.
Subsequent interviews as a part of these follow-up investigations additionally provided what typically have been conflicting statements about which supervisors on the Lakeview Submit knew in regards to the couple’s relationship exterior of their patrol automobile.
Michigan State Police Sgt. Scott Ziesman. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained through FOIA. WLNS)
Ziesman, who supervised the midnight shift and the Lakeview Submit’s FTO program on the time of Antcliff’s task to Moryc, informed investigator Carissa Horan that administration determined to position Moryc with a person they knew was a “womanizer” as a result of she was married.
“Did anyone express concern about Trooper Antcliff being assigned to Trooper Moryc or any of the female troopers based on his past reputation as a womanizer?” Horan requested Ziesman throughout an investigation carried out by the Skilled Requirements Part in 2023.
“I do recall a discussion about that,” Ziesman mentioned. “Trooper Moryc, then Symonds, was married at the time. The other female [trooper] was not. And I know amongst the post commander, the assistant post commander and I, we felt that was the better person to have him with.”
‘Compared to the other, single, female, that was better’
Ziesman was being questioned as a result of Moryc accused Antcliff of home assault in textual content messages she despatched to 1st Lt Ryan Maki shortly after the 2 separated. That investigation led MSP officers to conclude that Antcliff had dedicated quid professional quo sexual harassment when he engaged in a sexual relationship with Moryc.
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When Horan requested Ziesman what the thought course of was like, Ziesman mentioned, “Just [that] was the lesser, or [the] easier decision to come to. Compared to the other single female, that was better.”
Ziesman didn’t clarify exactly why management thought Moryc being married on the time made her a greater match than a single girl, nor why they elected to pair any ladies with Antcliff in any respect.
Nevertheless, he did notice that one of many contributing elements to Moryc’s being assigned to Antcliff was the restricted variety of FTOs staffing the Lakeview Submit on the time. There have been across the identical variety of FTOs as there have been probationary troopers
Horan within the interview urged to Ziesman that, if management needed to make a placement resolution primarily based on whether or not an FTO would try a relationship with a trooper, then that FTO shouldn’t even be in this system.
“I agree with that,” Ziesman mentioned. “But also, we have to work with what we have.”
Though Antcliff’s fame as a womanizer didn’t dissuade MSP management from inserting him with Moryc, it did spark issues. Ziesman mentioned he spoke with each Lakeview Submit Commander Capt. Kevin Sweeney and the assistant publish commander, Lt. Robert Davis, about Antcliff’s fame and rumors that that Antcliff and Moryc have been in a relationship.
“I think I discussed with them before I even spoke with Trevin, and they suggested that, you know, they, you know maybe ‘put him on notice,’ kind of, you know, ‘this is unacceptable if, indeed this is what’s going on,'” Ziesman informed Horan.
Wendy Murphy, a professor at New England Legislation in Boston and head the college’s Ladies and Youngsters’s Advocacy Challenge, mentioned that Antcliff and Moryc’s relationship was unlawful and got here to the identical conclusion that MSP management got here to – he dedicated quid professional quo sexual harassment.
“Quid pro quo sexual harassment doesn’t involve a question of wantedness,” she mentioned. “It’s per se improper.”
‘That was at the back of my mind, too’
Murphy mentioned there’s a energy dynamic in relationships between a supervisor and their subordinate, one during which the specter of ending the profession of a subordinate is “inherent in the relationship.”
Moryc informed investigators that she feels she would have handed the FTO program of her personal accord no matter whether or not she was in a relationship with Antcliff. She did admit that his assessments may have resulted in her shedding her job with MSP.
Michigan State Police Troopers Trevin Antcliff and Megan Moryc. (Courtesy picture. WLNS)
“Now, was there concern that if I didn’t continue the relationship he could score me badly? Yeah,” she informed investigators. “That was at the back of my mind, too. Like, if I try to break things off or, um, upset him, could he all of a sudden start failing me? Yup.”
Moryc informed 6 Information Investigates that she felt she had nowhere to show due to her probationary standing. Probationary troopers may very well be fired at any time, for any motive, and Moryc mentioned she believed that turning down Antcliff’s advances may very well be a motive.
“I didn’t know how he would react if I told him no. I did not feel I could go to anyone at that point and say I need a new field training officer because he’s, you know, trying to pursue me in this manner that I’m not comfortable with,” she mentioned. “I did not feel I could go to anybody because of the perception, because of how they treated us in the Academy, because of that underlying.”
She mentioned she thought she wouldn’t be believed, even when she did converse up.
“And because he had so many years in, who are they going to believe? There were no women at my post. There was one woman who was already there, me and the other female from my academy class who came in, [so] there were three of us at this entire post. We were the only three women out on the road, period,” Moryc mentioned.
“So, who are they going to believe? This trooper, with 15 years in, or this, this female coming into our space and this [white male-dominated] post, [this] probationary trooper, who are you going to believe?”
She informed investigators she was extra involved in regards to the implications the connection may have had for her profession and fame. She mentioned she feared individuals would imagine Antcliff helped her cross this system regardless of her glorious efficiency. She informed investigators her “work spoke for itself.”
Members of MSP management on the Lakeview Submit recall giving Moryc good marks throughout her FTO program. Her first-phase FTO, Sgt. Aaron McCormick, informed investigators she “performed well” and proceeded at a standard tempo via her coaching.
Michigan State Police Sgt. Aaron McCormick. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained via FOIA. WLNS)
Then-assistant publish commander Davis went additional than that, telling investigators she was an “exceptional investigator,” together with her “abilities being ahead of her peers.”
Neither McCormick nor Davis mentioned they recalled any points with Moryc in the course of the FTO program or when she on solo patrol. Even Antcliff recalled her as having above-average efficiency.
‘Recruiting women right now’
Moryc didn’t got down to be a police officer, she mentioned, and satirically it was an effort by the MSP to rent extra ladies that led her to trooper faculty in 2016.
After she graduated from Michigan State College with a level in felony justice with a specialization in safety in December 2007, she took a job in loss prevention for a big-box retail outlet, a job she mentioned she finally discovered to be unfulfilling.
An encounter with a state trooper whereas investigating shoplifting rings modified that, she mentioned.
“Through the investigations I was doing with these external rings, I had a Michigan State Police officer respond to one of one of my calls, and he saw the [investigation packet] I put together on this one shoplifter in particular,” Moryc mentioned. “And he had urged that I apply for the Michigan State Police.
“And he had said, ‘They’re really heavily recruiting women right now, so this is really something you should consider because your investigations on this are really good.’”
After finishing trooper faculty, she grew to become concerned professionally and personally with Antcliff, and her function as a trooper started to vary, she mentioned.
She mentioned she could be denied the chance to develop and take part within the state police on account of what she calls gender discrimination. She then says she was retaliated towards for reporting harassment and discrimination within the office, which she known as the sexualized “Big Boys’ Club.” MSP has denied these claims.
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In 2021, throughout a drunken incident at a union occasion in Traverse Metropolis, she could be the one considered one of a gaggle of troopers – together with Antcliff – criminally charged when a number of the troopers complained about her bodily horseplay, fees authorized knowledgeable Murphy mentioned have been “unethical.”
She spent 21 days in jail when Traverse County Chief Decide Robert Cooney put aside a plea settlement and sentenced her after she had pleaded no contest to assault and battery.
She was fired shortly after, solely to be reinstated to lively obligation and again pay after an arbitrator and the courts discovered her fees false and unsubstantiated. The MSP’s attraction of that ruling finally rose to the Michigan Supreme Court docket, which upheld that call.
She misplaced her job for a second time in February 2025 when investigators mentioned she had perjured herself in testimony about her and Antcliff’s relationship throughout Antcliff’s divorce proceedings. A prosecutor declined to cost her with perjury.
Then, and in late July, an arbitrator contemplating her attraction of that submitting dominated that her firing was wrongful, that she didn’t commit perjury, and mentioned the MSP acted with “animus,” — hostile intent – of their steady makes an attempt to sever Moryc’s employment as a trooper.
“We are pleased that a second arbitrator has seen through MSP’s smoke-and-mirrors-filled campaign of retaliation against Ms. Moryc for daring to speak the truth about the dangerous and discriminatory environment it cultivates against its female employees, and we hope that MSP can finally walk away from this losing battle,” mentioned Moryc’s lawyer, Liz Abdnour. “If not, Ms. Moryc stands ready to continue the fight, as the safety of women across Michigan depends on law enforcement officers feeling safe at work, regardless of their sex.”
‘Another layer of liability’
Murphy mentioned that MSP’s acknowledgement of the rumors about Antcliff means they’d an obligation to intervene and cease any potential hurt from occurring – by retaining him away from ladies, “period.”
By failing to take action, Murphy says the state police might have run afoul of Title VII – the civil rights code that shields staff from discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
“These regulations under Title VII 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,” Murphy mentioned. “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.”
However publish management provided contradictory statements to investigators when it got here to their information of what was taking place with Moryc and Antcliff.
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McCormick informed investigators that he had heard rumors from day shift that Antcliff and Moryc have been in a relationship. He described himself and Antcliff as mates, however informed investigators that, when he confronted Antcliff in regards to the rumors, Antcliff accused him of spreading them, which finally ruined their friendship.
Moryc mentioned management by no means requested her in regards to the nature of her relationship with Antcliff and that she believes Ziesman suspected they have been in a relationship, and even detailed an occasion the place Ziesman jokingly informed her he was suspicious and would be taught the reality ultimately. Moryc responded, additionally jokingly, that perhaps she would inform him at some point.
She informed investigators that after mentioning the dialog to Antcliff, he grew to become “very upset,” and after that, she felt that she couldn’t focus on the truth that their relationship started in the course of the FTO program with anybody.
Ziesman informed investigators Antcliff and Moryc exhibited uncommon habits in the course of the FTO program that would have fueled the rumors, corresponding to her bringing in meals for him and different “little things like that that just didn’t seem to fit the normal relationship.”
He informed investigators that each he and Davis had separate discussions with Antcliff in regards to the rumors that he and Moryc have been in a relationship. Ziesman mentioned that Antcliff denied the connection. Ziesman didn’t elaborate on when that dialogue was held, and Horan didn’t ask him.
“I pulled him aside without her present and just a simple ‘Hey,’ you know ‘This is a rumor. You know that this is not acceptable,” Ziesman told Horan. “She’s a probationary trooper. You are technically her supervisor, this would be unacceptable,’ and he assured me that there was nothing inappropriate going on, and he was aware of that.”
However Ziesman joined different members of management in saying that that he by no means believed that Moryc and Antcliff have been collectively throughout her time within the FTO program, saying he thought that Antcliff was telling him the reality.
“I mean, they got along well, but that doesn’t mean, you know, it was nothing that I could read into,” Ziesman mentioned. “In hindsight, obviously, you know, it’s a little clearer, but at the time [I] thought that I could trust Trevin that what he told me was indeed true.”
In line with an inner report that concluded Antcliff had dedicated sexual harassment towards Moryc, Sweeney mentioned that if he was conscious of any rumors or “substantiated inappropriate conduct” between Moryc and Antcliff, he would have acted.
“No,” Sweeney mentioned in an August 2023 interview with investigators. “I never heard or was made aware of when the two of them, you know, started to hook up, quote unquote.”
Sweeney informed investigators that the interview was he first time he was listening to something associated to Moryc and Antcliff’s relationship in the course of the FTO program. He additionally informed investigators that he didn’t imagine Davis knew both, as he didn’t elevate these issues with him.
“We might have mentioned it,” Sweeney mentioned. “I would think that if he had heard anything that we would have talked about it.”
In the meantime, Davis informed investigators he knew of Antcliff’s rumored womanizing. He mentioned he didn’t assume placements needs to be decided by “off-duty behavior.”
“We felt that we can’t consider what are essentially rumors and conjecture in how we do our assignments,” he informed investigators.
Davis mentioned that in one assembly the place Moryc’s placement was mentioned, one other, unidentified member of command referred to assigning Antcliff as her FTO as “putting a wolf in the hen house or something like that.”
“I was like, you know, ‘What do you want me to do? We have limited FTOs here,’” Davis informed investigators. “‘We’re not going to exclude him from being an FTO of someone here, otherwise you might as well just come off the program.’”
However he additionally informed investigators that he was unaware of the rumors relating to Moryc and Antcliff’s relationship, echoing Sweeney’s assertion that, if he knew about them, he would have performed one thing about them, and that he believed that every one the instances he had suspected they have been in a relationship was after the FTO program had ended.
“Although, as I remember, and I don’t know, maybe – I don’t know if it was during the FTO program,” Davis mentioned. “I just have memories of squad meetings where I thought they were a little more chummy than I would have expected at the time, I guess.”
Screenshot of a portion of an inner investigation carried out by the Michigan State Police Skilled Requirements Part. The investigation was into sexual harassment — particularly quid professional quo — sexual harassment had occurred between then-MSP Subject Coaching Officer and Trooper Trevin Antcliff of the Lakeview Submit and MSP Trainee and Trooper Megan Moryc. (Report obtained via FOIA by Megan Moryc and offered to six Information Investigates. WLNS)
Murphy mentioned the “rumors” about Antcliff and his and Moryc’s relationship have been greater than sufficient to qualify as “notice” below Title VII, and they need to not have been dismissed.
“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 mentioned. “It’s not just a rumor. It’s really a highly credible package of information. We use the word rumor loosely, sometimes to dismiss things we know about.”
