Perhaps a little perspective is in order.
I ran against Larry Inman in 2016.
Not because he and I disagreed greatly in principle, or that he was far left (he is most certainly not), but mostly because I didn’t trust his instincts with people. This may have led to some of his recent problems, and perhaps how easily he can get roped into bad decision making or votes by those with other agendas.
But Larry is not a BAD guy, or evil, or anything that many of those who rise to higher office become. He just trusts too many of those who make a living off of dealing with, or taking advantage of an overly benevolent government.
The rent seekers find players they can successfully manipulate, and there are plenty enough within both political ranks in Michigan alone to fill Cobo hall. But on the fringes of those, are the strategists who work to find the chinks in the armor of political rivals. Willing to ruin the life of a person for political gain is easy for far too many on either side.
I would guarantee that Larry was in some-way victimized by those who have been trying to flip his Northern District and reverse polarity in the State house. He might have also been confused on how to solicit contributions (100% legal) for the over-moneyed process that is politics in Michigan.
But larry Inman is no criminal. And apparently, the first round of court battles he has been engaged in says as much.
Federal charges for Lying have been tossed, and a hung jury has mis-trialed the remainder. He may or may not have to defend himself once more on those charges, but clearly the government could not make the case that Larry Inman is guilty to the satisfaction of all 12 jurors who heard the arguments.
In the meantime however, he is back serving the people who elected him. He should be, and speaker Chatfield should open the representative’s office back up so that he can represent the 104th district properly. After the verdict he went right back to work
““I really had a choice to either drive home and try to catch up with my life and the people in Grand Traverse County or come back here and show really my constituents back home, and all the residents of the state of Michigan and my colleagues down here on the floor, that I came back as a proud person,” he said. “I was not convicted of any crime, I was not guilty to lying to the FBI, which was huge for me, and I am an innocent man, I am a truthful man and I am a man of integrity.”
There will be folks unhappy that he was not convicted, but one question needs to be asked of those. “Why?”
We should be glad of not guilty verdicts. We should be happy that guilt has not been found, and that no crimes have been proven. Innocence is a GOOD thing, is it not?
The determination on at least one charge was that there was no guilt. The remainders left up in the air, and that there was insufficient evidence to convince 12 peers unanimously to declare it.
Larry Inman has been put through the process, and come out the other side still eager to serve in the face of humiliation and degradation of his reputation. His troubles earned in some way or not at all, have an outcome that we must recognize as mostly concluded. The financial and emotional cost being real is more than enough to send any messages that some may wish to impart.
It’s time to move on.
(20)Nuh Uh.
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Thank you for this Jason. The recall efforts of Larry Inman, truly pissed me off, and republicans hysterically asking for his resignation, pissed me off even more. Innocent until proven guilty is our Rule of Law, to move forward with a recall, before he had his day in court, was/is JUST PLAIN WRONG. And, the issues listed in the recall, is also contrary to the the innocent until proven guilty doctrine. Indeed, many democrats told me this was the sole reason they would not sign the petition. (What??? constitution believers on the democrat side???) Attended the recall organizational meeting and stated my concerns--innocent until proven guilty. And the attorney responded "we agree that Inman is entitled to a fair trial". I kid you not--outta the mouths of stupid. I was forced to correct him...didn't make too many friends--he was an attorney after all--smartest guy in the room??? So, here's the poop of the two mistrial issues--these are federal laws which require involvement of federal money. AT NO TIME WAS FEDERAL MONEY INVOLVED. Bringing federal charges was overreach. The State police should have been the investigating agency, not FIB (not a typo, think Corney) So, why the FBI???? Michigan actually has a law what Inman did, if he did it, is NOT against MI Campaign finance laws and indeed, Speaker Lee Chatfield actually testified, he didn't think Mr. Inman broke any laws. DO I NEED TO REPEAT THAT???
What is against the law and has a $10K penalty, is the union paying to back the recall with unreported campaign finance funds by them. If not for Inman's attorney asking the question, in a federal court... What's even funnier, the DetNews asked him how he knew to ask this. HAHAHA, The reports that the recall efforts spent $60K with "hundreds of volunteers". If you're paid to collect signatures by the same union involved with Inman, are you a volunteer??? The SOS only realized a campaign finance report was not on file with them and called the county to obtain copies of what they filed. This only came about when petitions were submitted to the Board of Canvassers and denied over a "typo" and appealed. All takes Lots of $$$ Only then did the SOS realized they had nothing on file for the recall issue. The SOS at the same time had no record of Inman's "defense fund" and order him to immediately produce records. THERE ISN'T ONE YOU BOZO'S, no records. In fact, under campaign finance laws, this clearly is not allowed.
August 18, 1920 was a huge victory for The Left. We all understand that. You did that.
UPDATE: Yesterday, the Court of Appeals panel on a 2/1 vote upheld the dismissal and the Secretary of State found that the filed petitions lacked 94 signatures, so the matter was dismissed. The appellants were heard saying they were taking this to the state supremes, don't know if this was before or after the petitions were found to lack signatures.
What's really funny is they announced they filed 14K signatures while only required somewhere around 12,000 and still fell 94 signatures short Approximately 2100 signatures were Whole petition pages had to have been faulty for this to have happened. That's the equivalent of 150 petitions is there was 14 names on petitions. I swear three times they came to my door, and the last one was a young lady whose age I put around 15/16. Remember, the union paid circulators to circulate these petitions. And, it was unlawful for the union to do this.
I hope they dismiss the two count indictments against Larry, after all, the union comes to the table with dirty hands now. And remember, Speaker Chatfield said he didn't think any laws were broken. And in this line...Lee Chatfield, immediately restore Larry Inman's office and phone. It's not Larry you're punishing it's his constituents. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DENY US ACCESS TO OUR STATE REP. Larry is showing up, doing his job., And You, dear sir, must not forget, that if you aspire to higher office, and you do, I will personally make sure what you are doing to Larry, is not forgotten.