Much as most of us wish that the Courser/Gamrat saga would just end, there is no sign of that happening. Late last week, former Courser & Gamrat staffers Ben Graham and Keith Allard filed a lawsuit against the two claiming they were fired in violation of the Michigan Whisleblowers’ Protection Act:
Ex-staffers have sued former state Reps. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat under the Michigan Whisleblowers’ Protection Act, alleging they were fired “solely in retaliation” for telling House management about the lawmakers’ extra-marital affair, cover-up and other behavior.An attorney for Keith Allard and Ben Graham filed the complaint Friday in Ingham County Circuit Court, seeking compensation for “economic and non-economic” damages, fees, interest and other relief. […]
The suit also accuses the former lawmakers of libeling and slandering Allard and Graham by saying they were fired because of substandard performance or because they had otherwise done something wrong. In a August 10 audio release, Courser alleged that the former staffers were involved in a blackmail or extortion plot to pressure him into resigning from office before the affair was exposed.
Grand Rapids attorney Sarah Riley Howard, representing Allard and Graham, sent Courser a letter on Thursday asking him to “publicly and unequivocally retract” those “false and malicious” statements and others, saying they had caused “unfair and unwarranted harm” to her clients.
So far, suit does not include House leadership and is focused solely on Courser and Gamrat’s retaliatory firing of the aides. Given that Graham was given a substantial raise just prior to being fired, it looks very much like they have a solid case.
Meanwhile, in between posting Bible verses on his Facebook pages, Courser weighed in on the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon last week and his response was both typical of his views on guns and appalling in its callousness:
More guns more freedom! The loss of life happened and it is absolutely tragic; my heart breaks for those who died at the hands of this demonic spirit; the tragedy is due to pure evil being unleashed and gun restrictions – less gun rights less freedom – more gun rights more freedom. Campuses need to allow students to carry firearms. Again what we learn from these tragedies is that we do not learn from these tragedies; again this act of pure evil happened in a “death zone” or as political correctness calls it a “gun free zone.” It is well past time to end gun free zones!
At a candidates forum in Lapeer over the weekend, Courser doubled down, saying we need to end registration of guns:
“I’m the guy who believes gun-free zones are the problem, they’re not the solution,” Courser said. “You need to end handgun registration. You need to fall back on the Constitution – (that) is our right to carry.”
It takes a special type of gun worshipper to believe that solution to gun violence on college campuses is MORE guns and more armed students and that the solution to gun violence in general is to stop registering guns. All it takes is to play out an active shooter scenario in your mind for a few minutes to understand just how much more deadly and tragic a situation like the one in Oregon would have been if multiple students were firing guns in the middle of the chaotic maelstrom.
