Cindy and Joe Gamrat
Sure, it's a trite saying, but it seems too apropos to resist: You can't make up this stuff.
Chad Livengood of The Detroit News reports that the Lapeer County Prosecutor's Office has decided not to criminally charge ex-state Rep. Cindy Gamrat's husband, Joe Gamrat, who sent his wife and former state Rep. Todd Courser anonymous text messages threatening to expose their extramarital affair.
Courser had been telling people that there was an extortion plot. He said someone had sent an anonymous text to him and Gamrat threatening to expose their affair if they didn't resign.
After that, Courser had said that he tried to cover up the affair by making up a story that he had sex with a male prostitute in Lansing. Both Gamrat and Courser were ousted from the House in September. Courser resigned just before the House was about to expel him. Gamrat was expelled.
Livengood reports:
Lapeer County Prosecutor Tim Turkelson confirmed Sunday to The Detroit News that he won’t charge Joe Gamrat or anyone else with any crime for their role in sending the text messages to Courser and Cindy Gamrat using a pre-paid cell phone.
“The motivation behind the text messages sent from the individuals was to assist Joe Gamrat in ending the extramarital affair,” Turkelson said. “The messages therefore do not rise to the level of criminal extortion.”
In a statement, Turkelson suggested prosecuting Joe Gamrat and anyone who assisted him in trying to end his wife’s affair with Courser would be a waste of taxpayer money.
Courser claimed his and Gamrat’s former House aides Keith Allard and Ben Graham were involved in supplying the anonymous texter with information about the affair.
On Sunday, Courser posted on Facebook:
Police Report shows that the staff was intimately involved in the extortion operation back to the beginning, before the fabled taping of the conversation the night of May 19th. I was just asked, given this info, and all the background of this “would I sue?” I am not sure where you go to get your name back? Given these bastards were involved in the extortion effort from the beginning; worked with my political adversaries from the beginning; and they stated in texts that their first order of priority in arriving in Lansing was to get me thrown out of office. .. the media and the leadership knew damn well this was a trumped up political hit and simply pushed it thru. In no way can one recover the damage these men have done with their lies.
None of this absolves me of my own failures in this, but my failures cannot justify the evil and demonic plot these men carried out – and the hell of lies they have vomited. I can only hope the report simply showcases the deceit of all involved from the former staff, thru the Speaker’s Team, and of course the refusal of the media to really investigate what was behind the political hit to remove the most vocal voices of opposition to the impending gas tax that was being put forward by these same men in leadership.
