Disgraced Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat have filed separate lawsuits in federal court against the Michigan House of Representatives, investigators, former colleagues and others. This is a case of the corrupt politicians that refuse to go away.
Todd Courser was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent the 82nd District in 2014. Cindy Gamrat was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives to represent the 80th District in 2014. They were both Tea Party Republicans that claimed to be Christian and to support traditional family values. Both were married to other people and both have children.
In 2015, it was discovered that Courser and Gamrat were having an affair. According to ABC News, after the two took office on January 2, 2015, they became close allies. They combined their offices and their staff, and are said to have pushed away and alienated the majority of their colleagues. They were also alleged to have used state resources to hide their affair.
ABC News reported that in May 2015, Courser began receiving text messages threatening to expose his affair with Gamrat. It was later discovered that Gamrat’s husband had been the one sending the texts. Courser then approached one of his staff members and asked him to send an anonymous email to House members. Courser’s instructions were to say “Todd Courser caught on tape behind Lansing nightclub. In truth, Courser secretly removed from caucus several weeks ago due to a male-on-male paid-for sex. He is a bisexual, porn-addicted sexual deviant.” “And then you just get nasty about it,” Courser continues, and then reading, “His **** is hanging out all over Lansing since the election … gun-toting, Bible-thumping … freak … he doesn’t work in Lansing. He’s just there feeding his habit of alcohol, drugs and illicit sex.” Gamrat went along with this ruse to “inoculate the herd” so that rumors of an affair would not be as likely to be believed.
After investigation, The House of Representatives expelled Gamrat. Courser resigned before he could be expelled. Special elections in their districts had to be held to replace them and, believe it or not, they ran for re-election! Their actions cost the tax payers a lot of embarrassment and a lot of money.
As a result of the investigation, charges of multiple felony misconduct in office were made against both, and an additional charge of perjury against Courser. The charges against Gamrat were ultimately dismissed and Courser was bound over for trial.
Rather than quietly going away, they have now both filed lawsuits. Courser is alleging a wide range of offenses by the defendants, including due process and equal protection, racketeering, extortion, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. He is seeking $10 million in damages and other relief. Gamrat is alleging defamation and due process violations, and is seeking damages of $25,000 and other relief.
These two corrupt politicians simply refuse to go away. They insist on continuing to cost the very taxpayers that elected them to pay more money so they can keep their names in the spotlight. After all, to some people, bad attention is better than no attention. I have no medical or psychological training, but the Mayo Clinic, on its website, has a list of personality disorders. For narcissistic personality disorder, it lists the following:
- Belief that you’re special and more important than others
- Fantasies about power, success and attractiveness
- Failure to recognize others’ needs and feelings
- Exaggeration of achievements or talents
- Expectation of constant praise and admiration
- Arrogance
- Unreasonable expectations of favors and advantages, often taking advantage of others
- Envy of others or belief that others envy you
The above bullet points are a direct quote from Mayo Clinic. It appears to me that Courser and Gamrat could suffer from all but, perhaps, one of the above. Will they ever go away? The answer to that question remains to be seen.
Join the conversation!