Inman not guilty of lying to FBI; hung jury on bribery and extortion

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Indicted Rep. Larry Inman defends his reputation, says he's innocent State Rep. Larry Inman, R-Williamsburg, has been indicted on federal charges of bribery and extortion for allegedly trying to trade his vote for campaign contributions.

A state lawmaker was found not guilty Tuesday of lying to the FBI in connection with a bribery and extortion investigation.

A jury in federal court in Grand Rapids could not reach a verdict on charges of attempted extortion and soliciting a bribe against state Rep. Larry Inman, a Republican who was expelled from his caucus after the charges were brought. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Jonker declared a mistrial on those counts.

Inman, 65, of Williamsburg faced a possible prison term if convicted. It was not immediately clear whether federal prosecutors would retry him on the charges for which the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

The jury had deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days, following a trial that began last week.

"I feel very good," Inman said outside the courtroom to WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo. "I'm relieved that this is over. I'm really looking forward to getting back to the Legislature" and serving his constituents, he said.

Inman, who testified in his own trial, cited as a defense an addiction to painkillers, following a series of surgeries, that affected his memory and judgment.

A federal grand jury indicted Inman in May, alleging he sought campaign donations from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and other unions in return for "no" votes on a measure to repeal Michigan's prevailing wage law, which requires union wage rates on most public projects.

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Most Republicans, including Inman, voted "yes" to repeal the law. But Trey Hines, Inman's legislative director, testified he never knew how Inman was going to vote, right up to the time it happened. Inman was under considerable pressure from Republican legislative leaders to vote yes, but feared that he could lose his Traverse City-area seat over the vote because of a strong Democratic and pro-labor constituency in his district, the court was told.

According to the indictment, Inman texted a union representative and said: "I hear the prevailing wage vote may be on Wednesday," and while "carpenters have been good to me, where are the rest of the trades on checks?"

Inman went on to say "it's not worth losing assignments and staff for $5,000," and "you need to get people maxed out," according to the indictment. The message said: "People will not go down for $5,000, not that we don't appreciate it."

House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, who was speaker pro tem at the time of the prevailing wage vote, testified Inman was expelled from the Republican caucus and lost his House office and staff after his indictment and after he admitted that he sent the text messages to the unions. It's improper for a state representative to mix how he will vote with campaign finance issues, Chatfield said.

Gideon D'Assandro, a spokesman for Chatfield, said he would study the verdict Tuesday night before commenting.

Prosecutors also displayed text messages exchanged before and after the vote between Inman and Dan Pero, who at the time was chief of staff to then House Speaker Tom Leonard, R-DeWitt, and has since retired.

Pero testified Inman was marked down as either a "no" vote or undecided on repealing the prevailing wage law, and he wanted to convince him to vote yes.

"You're gonna need dough my man to hold onto yours," Pero texted in reference to Inman's House seat. "I'm worried for you if you go south on PW (prevailing wage)."

Pero testified that Inman had already voted against the party leadership twice — once by voting against an income tax cut and once by voting against no-fault auto insurance reform. Both measures failed when put to a vote.

He said it would be increasingly difficult to get financial support from the business community for Inman's candidacy if he also voted against the prevailing wage repeal.

"The big money is the PAC (political action committee) community and the independent groups who keep the scorecards," Pero texted Inman before the vote.

Pero testified he wanted Inman to know the prevailing wage issue was perhaps the most important legislative issue for the business community.

When Inman ultimately voted yes — the opposite way from how the unions wanted him to vote — he told Republican leaders he made the vote against his own political interests because he wanted to save two other vulnerable Republicans in Democratic-leaning districts from having to vote yes.

But one of those lawmakers, Rep. Joe Bellino, R-Monroe, testified that he was always marked down as a "no" vote and the Republican leadership knew that. He said he never had any discussions about Inman voting "yes" so that Bellino would not have to and the measure would still pass.

Inman was represented by Traverse City attorney Chris Cooke.

An effort to recall Inman crashed last month after election officials said a word was missing on the recall petition. The petition was missing the word “right” in describing one of the charges against him. The petition language must match the previously approved reasons for a recall.

Nearly 14,000 signatures from voters in his district were submitted, more than enough to force a recall election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.