Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

He’s facing felony charges for misconduct in office. The Attorney Grievance Commission is looking into whether his law license should be revoked. And he resigned his seat in the state House of Representatives in September before he could be expelled by fellow lawmakers.

But former state Rep. Todd Courser, R-Silverwood, still wants to hold public office. He filed the necessary paperwork Tuesday to run as a Republican for the Lapeer County Prosecutor.

He didn’t return a phone call from the Free Press to comment on his latest race, but one of his opponents — the Republican incumbent Tim Turkelson — said he’s surprised by the filing because he doesn’t think that Courser has ever handled a criminal case as a lawyer.

“Clearly, Todd’s history doesn’t bode well. But that’s for voters to decide,” Turkelson said. “I’ve been doing this for 20-some years, and he’s never handled a criminal case.”

Courser and former state Rep. Cindy Gamrat, R-Plainwell, were swept into office as two of the most prominent tea party winners in 2014, but got caught up in a sex scandal and bizarre cover-up in which Courser admitted sending out an anonymous e-mail, claiming he was a sexual deviant addicted to porn who paid for sex with men outside of bars in Lansing. The e-mail, which was widely distributed around Lansing, was intended to make it appear that Courser and Gamrat were the victims of a smear campaign and to make news of their affair pale in comparison.

Courser has said he was a desperate man reacting to text messages that threatened to expose the affair if he didn't leave office. An investigation into those text messages revealed that Gamrat's husband Joe was behind the anonymous messages, but Turkelson declined to press charges in the matter. In September, Courser resigned from office right before fellow members of the House of Representatives were getting ready to vote to expel him. The House did vote to expel Gamrat.

Courser will face Republicans Turkelson and Michael Sharkey, both of Lapeer, in the Aug. 2 primary election. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Philip Fulks, of North Branch, who also filed to run for the seat by Tuesday’s deadline.

After his resignation, Courser tried to regain the seat he vacated in November and finished sixth out of 11 candidates with 415 votes.

After investigating the scandal, Attorney General Bill Schuette filed four felonies against Courser: lying under oath to the Select Committee in the House of Representatives, a 15-year felony; and three counts of misconduct in office in connection with asking staffers to send a false e-mail, lying to the House Business Office and asking staffers to forge his signature on proposed legislation. The misconduct charges carry a 5-years-in-prison maximum penalty. The case is pending in Ingham County courts.

There also still are two lawsuits pending on the matter, filed in Ingham County and federal court by former staffers of Courser and Gamrat, Keith Allard and Ben Graham. One suit is against the lawmakers, the other a whistle-blower case against the House of Representatives.

Courser and Gamrat also said they are planning to file a federal lawsuit against the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter and a number of staffers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430 or kgray99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @michpoligal