From Westland Mayoral Candidate to Federal Defendant: The Case Against William Asper
Federal lawsuit alleges years of sexual harassment and retaliation against female tenants at rental properties in Westland. Asper denies the allegations.
WESTLAND, MI -In 2021, William Aaron Asper wanted to be the mayor of Westland.
He described himself as a lifelong Westland resident and entered a crowded mayoral race, promising to challenge what he called corruption in city government.
Today, Asper is at the center of a very different kind of public scrutiny.
The United States Department of Justice has sued him in federal court, alleging that he sexually harassed female tenants and retaliated against women who rejected his advances at rental properties he owned or managed.
The allegations are contained in a civil complaint filed December 2, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Asper has denied the allegations.
The case is not a criminal prosecution, and the allegations have not been proven in court.
But the federal government's complaint is extensive and much of the alleged conduct is connected directly to rental properties in Westland.
More than 20 properties
According to the Justice Department's complaint, Asper and entities associated with him owned or managed at least 23 residential rental properties in Michigan during the period covered by the lawsuit.
The majority were in the Eastern District of Michigan, including numerous properties in Westland.
The complaint identifies properties on Akron Street, Alberta Street, Bay Court, Belding Court, Cheboygan Court, Dayton Court, Decatur Court, Deerfield Court, Elbridge Court, Ellsworth Street, Emerson Street and Roscommon Street.
According to federal prosecutors, Asper wasn't merely an absentee property owner.
The complaint alleges that he was involved in the day-to-day operation of the properties advertising units, showing apartments, approving tenants, signing leases, collecting rent, responding to maintenance requests, making repairs and initiating eviction proceedings.
Beginning around 2021, the complaint says, the William Aaron Asper Irrevocable Living Trust and REPSA Enterprises LLC became the owners of the properties, while Asper continued managing them as an agent for those entities.
That relationship is central to the federal government's case.
What the Justice Department alleges
The Justice Department alleges that from approximately 2018 through 2025, multiple female tenants were subjected to sexual harassment.
According to the complaint, the alleged conduct included unwanted sexual comments and advances, unwanted kissing and touching, exposing his genitals to female tenants, offering housing benefits in exchange for sexual contact and threatening or pursuing housing-related consequences when women rejected his advances.
The government further alleges that some tenants faced threats of eviction or were denied repairs after refusing Asper's alleged demands.
The complaint describes several individual allegations.
In one case dating to approximately 2019, the government alleges that Asper repeatedly made sexual comments and propositions toward a female tenant, touched her without consent and exposed himself while her young son was sometimes present.
The complaint alleges that after the woman rejected his advances, Asper stopped making repairs to her home and she eventually moved out.
In another alleged incident from approximately 2024, the government says Asper grabbed a female tenant by the arm and pulled her against his chest after she said no and attempted to push him away.
According to the complaint, the woman reported the incident to police. The government alleges that Asper subsequently told her he would evict her because she had complained.
A third allegation involves a woman who the government says was told that if she did not engage in a sexual relationship with Asper, she would receive a 24-hour eviction notice.
The complaint says she refused and moved out because she did not feel safe.
The Justice Department describes those incidents as examples of what it alleges was a broader pattern or practice involving multiple female tenants.
Asper says the allegations aren't true
Asper has denied the allegations.
When contacted by ClickOnDetroit after the federal lawsuit was filed, Asper disputed the accusations and denied offering women lower rent or other housing benefits in exchange for sexual activity.
He also disputed allegations concerning evictions.
That denial is important.
The lawsuit is a civil action. The allegations made by the federal government are claims that must be established through the legal process. Asper has not been convicted of a crime based on the allegations in this lawsuit.
The Justice Department is seeking damages for alleged victims, civil penalties and an order prohibiting future violations of the Fair Housing Act.
There was another chapter before the federal lawsuit
The current lawsuit isn't the first time Asper's name appeared in Westland news.
In 2021, Asper launched a campaign for mayor.
He was subsequently removed from the ballot after the city's election officials determined that he did not meet the city's residency requirement.
Contemporary reporting shows that Asper disputed the decision and appealed his removal.
A July 2021 Hometown Life report noted that Asper had been removed from the ballot because the city determined he was not a Westland resident.
The mayoral controversy also generated questions about Asper's social-media activity and his background.
FOX 2 reported at the time that Asper faced questions about offensive social-media comments attributed to him. Asper denied responsibility for some of the posts and suggested that other people may have accessed his accounts.
According to ClickOnDetroit, court records also showed that Asper had previously been on probation from 2019 to 2021 for aggravated stalking.
That prior criminal matter is separate from the current federal Fair Housing Act lawsuit.
Why this matters to Westland
The federal case isn't simply about a landlord somewhere in Southeast Michigan.
The Justice Department's complaint identifies a significant number of properties in Westland.
That means there are potentially dozens of homes where tenants lived under a landlord whose management practices are now the subject of a federal civil-rights lawsuit.
And that raises questions that go beyond the allegations themselves.
What did tenants know?
What did neighbors know?
Were complaints ever made to the city?
Were there code-enforcement issues involving any of the properties?
Did any tenants seek help from local authorities?
And did anyone in Westland recognize a pattern before the federal government became involved?
Those are questions worth asking without presuming the answers.
The federal government says this is a Fair Housing Act case
The Justice Department isn't treating the allegations as simply a dispute between a landlord and individual tenants.
The complaint alleges violations of multiple provisions of the Fair Housing Act, including discrimination in the terms and conditions of housing and interference with tenants' federally protected rights.
The government specifically alleges that the conduct constituted a pattern or practice that raises an issue of general public importance.
That's significant.
The Fair Housing Act is designed to protect people not only from discrimination when they try to rent a home, but also from discriminatory treatment while they are living there.
A tenant shouldn't have to choose between having a roof over their head and tolerating harassment.
That is the central principle behind the federal government's lawsuit.
From City Hall aspirations to federal court
Five years ago, Asper was trying to convince Westland voters that he was the person who should lead the city.
His campaign ended before voters could make that decision.
Now his name is back in the public record for an entirely different reason.
The federal government alleges that the person managing rental properties in Westland used that position to sexually harass vulnerable female tenants and retaliate against those who resisted.
Asper says the allegations are false.
The court will ultimately determine what the evidence shows.
But regardless of the eventual outcome, the case raises an uncomfortable question for Westland:
When someone controls a person's housing, where does the power of a landlord end and where do a tenant's rights begin?
And perhaps an even larger one:
How many people had to be afraid to speak before the federal government finally stepped in?
Voice of Westland will continue following the case as it moves through federal court.
Editor's note: William Aaron Asper has denied the allegations contained in the federal lawsuit. The case is civil, not criminal, and the allegations have not been proven in court. This story relies on the federal complaint, statements from the Justice Department and contemporaneous reporting regarding Asper's 2021 mayoral campaign and prior legal history.
