Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Attorney General Bill Schuette announced felony charges Friday against former state Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat that could land the politicians in jail for five to 15 years.

The two Republican lawmakers left the Legislature in September — Courser resigned and Gamrat was expelled by House members — after getting caught up a sex and cover-up scandal.

Schuette obtained warrants in Ingham County District court in Lansing for four felonies against Courser, a Lapeer Republican: 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-year-in-prison maximum penalty.

The two felonies against Gamrat, a Plainwell Republican, also are for misconduct in office: for asking staffers to sign her name to legislative proposals and lying to the House Business Office.

Courser did not return a call from the Free Press for comment on the charges. Gamrat's attorney, Michael Nichols, said he looks forward to reviewing the charges.

"I think Bill Schuette expects that she doesn't have any fight left," he said.

"We live in a time, a moment when people wonder if government works any more ... if a wink and a nod justice rule the day, and if democracy is all about insiders, a chummy club for a chosen few," Schuette said during a news conference with reporters Friday.

"With the filing of charges, we’re demonstrating to citizens that no one is above the law," Schuette added. "Not even those who walk in the halls of power. No one is beyond the reach of the law."

Schuette also said that he has referred the matter to the Secretary of State to determine whether campaign finance violations of doing political work on state time are appropriate, as well as submitting the warrants to the Attorney Grievance Commission to see whether Courser's law license should be revoked.

The Michigan State Police has instructed Courser and Gamrat that they must appear in court to face the charges by Wednesday or be subject to arrest if they fail to appear.

When the House voted to expel Gamrat, they also asked for an investigation into the matter by the Attorney General and the Michigan State Police. Democrats were hoping that the investigation would also include a look at the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to determine whether they did enough to respond to complaints from staffers of Courser and Gamrat about their conduct in office.

After reviewing the House Business Office reports on the matter, Schuette said of Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter, R-Mt. Pleasant: "I give Speaker Cotter high marks on how he handled this."

House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, said he hopes the scandal investigation, as well as the Flint water crisis and a damaging audit report on how veterans are treated at the Grand Rapids Veterans Home will provide further movement toward making the governor's office and the Legislature subject to Freedom of Information laws, which require public disclosure of documents.

Gamrat and Courser, who were swept into office as two of the most prominent tea party winners in 2014, were 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 the 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 the Lapeer County Prosecutor declined to press charges in the matter.

There still are two lawsuits on the matter pending, 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.

"We feel validated by the charges announced today against our former employers," Graham and Allard said in a statement. "We have been trying for more than a year to bring the illegal and unethical actions of these two elected officials to light. We were fired and publicly humiliated for trying to do the right thing.

"Attorney General Schuette’s actions this morning underscore what we have been saying repeatedly: Todd and Cindy violated state law while they were in office and must be held accountable for their actions."

Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal