Cindy Gamrat, the former state legislator who represented most of Allegan County for about nine months in 2015, has filed a lawsuit against the Michigan House of Representatives, its leaders and staffers and her estranged husband.
Gamrat, who was expelled from her office in September 2015, has alleged she was the victim of illegal wiretapping, stalking, malicious prosecution and defamation. She was expelled after being accused of an extramarital affair with fellow State Rep. Todd Courser.
She has hired an attorney who filed suit in U.S. District Court.
Gamrat was elected state representative in the August primary and November general election of 2014. She has been associated heavily with the Tea Party, as has Courser, who resigned his post just hours before she was dismissed.
Named as defendants are then-Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter, House Business Office director Tim Bowlin, former legislative aides Keith Allard and Benjamin Graham, Cotter’s chief of staff and general counsel, Brock Swartzle and her estranged husband, Joe Gamrat.
Allard and Graham, who were fired after reporting unethical behavior by Courser and Gamrat, settled a lawsuit against the state House after they lost their jobs.
Courser filed a separate lawsuit against many of the same defendants, but later filed a motion to dismiss because of stress-related poor health.
Courser and Gamrat shared staff to cut expenses, they said, but were accused of misconduct for misusing state resources to cover up their affair.
Their story was picked up the national press and was the subject of a comedy skit by John Oliver in the weekly “Last Week Tonight” television program.
Gamrat said legislators and staffers turned on her because she refused to sign a pledge to support important issues to the caucus.
Joe Gramrat, her estranged husband, had begun “secretly conducting surveillance of Gamrat in her car, her home, her bedroom, and her campaign headquarters by placing secret wiretapping and surveillance devices in these locations,” Grand Rapids attorney Tyler Osburn wrote in a 38-page complaint. She accused Joe Gamrat and two others of secretly bugging her state office, hotel rooms, car and and purse with wiretapping devices. They also monitored her phone calls and voice mails, e-mails and texts, she said in the lawsuit.
The 80th Legislative District, which takes in all of Allegan County except Wayland, Dorr and Leighton townships and the City of Wayland, now is represented by State Rep. Mary Whiteford, who lost to Gamrat in the 2014 primary, but came back to win two special elections and then the primary and general elections in 2016.
PHOTO: Cindy Gamrat
She needs to accept responsibility for her actions and behavior – she, along with her accomplice, were the reasons for her problems now, nobody else. Gamrat, like Hillary Clinton, should shut up and get on with life.