Award-Winning and ‘Controversial’ Journalist Arrested for Hitting Wife

Journalist Charlie LeDuff has been charged with domestic violence for striking his wife.

LeDuff, a former Detroit News columnist, was arrested Monday in Pleasant Ridge and was charged Tuesday with a misdemeanor domestic violence in 45th District Court in Oak Park. He was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond after his arraignment Tuesday.

LeDuff’s attorney, Todd Perkins, said the victim in the case is LeDuff’s wife of 31 years. Perkins asked for LeDuff to be allowed to return to living at home if his wife was OK with it.

Judge Jaimie Horowitz said there should be no contact with LeDuff’s wife.

Perkins argued during LeDuff’s arraignment that LeDuff is a “fixture in the community.”

He said later Tuesday that LeDuff is a “guy who loves his family and would like to keep this matter private.” Perkins said he does not know the details of the case aside from what is in the charges.

“With the existence of a legal case pending he’ll do the best he can to protect his family from the public,” Perkins said.

Robert Ried, interim police chief for Pleasant Ridge, confirmed LeDuff was arrested for domestic violence Monday night. Ried said LeDuff allegedly struck someone he lives with but declined to provide additional details, citing an ongoing investigation.

LeDuff is a controversial journalist and is the host of a weekly podcast “No BS News Hour with Charlie LeDuff.”

LeDuff has worked at the New York Times, WJBK-TV and The News. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001.

LeDuff most recently was a columnist with The News, but the two parted ways in October after he used a euphemism for a disparaging slur for a woman against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on X, formerly Twitter. LeDuff told the Detroit Metro Times that he thought his insult was “clever.”

That came days after his last column with The News reported that, according to documents, Nessel breached an internal legal firewall created to prevent conflicts in her office amid an investigation of friend Traci Kornak, who was accused of fraudulently billing an insurance company for $50,000 on behalf of an elderly, brain-damaged client.