Ousted In Sex Scandal, Ex-Michigan Lawmaker Sues For Back Pay

Cindy Gamrat, who was kicked out of the Michigan Legislature in a 2015 sex scandal and bizarre cover-up attempt in a nationally sensational case, isn’t backing away from her legal and political quarrel with some of the state’s top political leaders. In a federal lawsuit filed last week in Grand Rapids, the Plainwell Republican is seeking back pay, arguing that she had agreed to censure and that her expulsion was illegal.

Defendants in the sweeping lawsuit include the Michigan House of Representatives, key House political leaders, former aides and her estranged husband, Joe Gamrat.

Cindy Gamrat, who is seeking monetary damages for stress and humiliation, makes multiple allegations in the 38-page lawsuit, including violation of state eavesdropping and federal wiretapping laws, civil stalking, defamation, fraud and conspiracy.

She and another Republican lawmaker, Todd Courser, of Lapeer, were publicly disgraced after they were caught in an affair in 2015. Courser, who resigned from the House minutes before leaders were poised to oust him in the marathon expulsion hearings in the fall of 2015, admitted that he had come up a bizarre scheme to essentially blackmail himself to avoid blackmail, contriving a fake gay sex scandal that would make the real affair with Gamrat less believable.

An amended complaint of Gamrat’s was filed in U.S. District Court by Gamrat’s attorney,Grand Rapids attorney Tyler Osburn. A lawsuit in which Gamrat represented herself was dismissed, MLive.com reported.

Both Gamrat and Courser had maintained during the investigation against them that they had been targeted as Tea Party Republicans whose views didn’t always mesh with the GOP majority, and Gamrat reasserted those allegations in her lawsuit. She refused to sign the “caucus pledge” to support issues important to then House Speaker Kevin Cotter and Republicans over the wishes of her constituents, and that’s when the targeted effort against her began, she said in the lawsuit.

The new complaint alleges Joe Gamrat, who she is divorcing, used wiretaps and other devices to clandestinely gather evidence against her. Gamrat claims her estranged husband conspired with former aides Keith Allard, Benjamin Graham, Joshua Cline and others by bugging her “state office, hotel rooms, her car, and her purse,” The Detroit news reported. The complaint also alleges Joe Gamrat and others secretly monitored the former lawmaker’s phone calls, voicemails and incoming and outgoing emails and text messages.

“Joe Gamrat then began to forward this information both directly and anonymously to people who knew Gamrat, including her friends, her pastor, and her colleagues in the House,” and was also “providing updates” to Cotter, the suit alleges.

“Defendants illegally, maliciously, and wrongfully conspired with one another with the intent to and for the illegal purpose of committing the tortious actions described above,” according to the suit.

Individuals named as defendants in the lawsuit are Cotter, a Mount Pleasant Republican; former aides Allard, Graham and Cline; House Business Office director Tim Bowlin; Cotter’s chief of staff , Norm Saari; general counsel Brock Swartzle; Joe Gamrat; and others.

Grand Rapids attorney Sarah Riley Howard, who represents Allard and Graham, told MLive that Gamrat’s lawsuit lacks merit. “Although Cindy Gamrat’s lawsuit claims to have taxpayers’ interests at heart, she seems very willing to waste a lot of their money deflecting blame for her actions.”

Felony misconduct charges relating to the coverup were dismissed last summer by a district judge who said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Gamrat was complicit in the coverup. Similar charges were dismissed against Courser in November, but he still faces perjury charges.

Courser, who filed a lawsuit similar to Gamrat’s but later withdrew it after his attorney said he had stress-induced health issues, was ordered by the court in January to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine his competency to stand trial on the perjury charges.

Both Gamrat and Courser filed to fill their own vacant seats in a 2016 special election, but were soundly defeated in primary contests.

Featured photo: Cindy Gamrat, a former Michigan lawmaker, listens while Judge Hugh Clark Jr. dismisses charges against her on Tuesday, June 14, 2016, in Lansing. Gamrat, who was expelled from the state House in 2015, was facing misconduct in office charges stemming from a legislative investigation into an alleged cover-up of her extramarital affair and her staff forging her signature on proposed legislation. (AP Photo/David Eggert)