Judge Orders House Speaker To Testify In Sex Scandal Case
LANSING, Mich. (WWJ/AP) - A judge has ordered Michigan's House speaker to testify in public in the criminal case of two lawmakers who were forced from office in a sex scandal.
Lansing District Judge Hugh Clarke Jr. on Thursday denied Speaker Kevin Cotter's motion to quash Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat's subpoena for him to answer questions in their probable cause hearing next week. Clarke also reversed course and ruled he won't allow Cotter to first be questioned privately in the judge's chambers.
This is completely unprecedented," said WWJ's Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick. "There isn't anybody in this town who can recall a Speaker of the House, a sitting speaker of the house being called to testify in cases such this. This is history in the making, if, it comes off."
Clarke denied Cotter legislative immunity, unless he's asked questions pertaining to his speech or actions on the House floor or in committee.
Spokesman Gideon D'Assandro says Cotter disagrees "strongly" with the ruling and will appeal.
In February, the two former state lawmakers were charged with felonies in connection with their scandalous love affair.
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