By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: August 13, 2015 1:11 PM

In recent days the talk of expelling legislators has come up in various places. The reasons for the new talk about the ultimate legislative penalty are obvious from the headlines of the last week involving Rep. Todd Courser (R-Silverwood) and Rep. Cindy Gamrat (R-Plainwell). There is no particular reason, then, to recount why anyone would discuss expulsion.

But as one of the few reporters remaining who covered the two expulsions in history, that of Democratic Rep. Monte Geralds in 1978 and Republican Sen. David Jaye in 2001, it is important to note several lessons learned from those traumatic events.

EXPULSIONS ARE NOT EASY: This might seem obvious, but it needs repeating repeatedly. Expulsions are not easy, on anyone. Riding the wave of rage that the public and even lawmakers can have toward a miscreant legislators, swimming through a chorus of calls to “throw the bum out,” making such a decision seems easy. Just cut the rope and let the dope sink, one thinks, and save yourself.

But passing judgment, deciding who gets tossed from the lifeboat, is very hard. I have served on five juries (just lucky, I guess). I have even had the task of looking a defendant in the eye and pronouncing him or her guilty. I know what it is to be in a jury room when we concluded all the evidence pointed to guilt, and yet, we still hesitated. We still had to go around the room and be sure we were ready to change this person’s life inexorably. We are the ones doing it. Someone is only guilty because we the jurors say he or she is. In the same way, a legislator is only expelled because his or her colleagues decide the person must be expelled.

There was real anguish in the House over expelling Mr. Geralds, and in the end 20 House members voted against doing so. At the last, just before the vote, then-Rep. Morris Hood Jr. (father of the current senator) told his colleagues if they had any hint of doubt they could not vote to expel.

There was clearly less anguish and more anger at Mr. Jaye, but it was an anger wrought of frustration, of exhaustion, of an inability to convince him his behavior was inexcusable and could not be tolerated. The members did not like taking the action. Former Sen. Thaddeus McCotter who chaired the special committee that recommended he be expelled said later Mr. Jaye had broken the hearts of his colleagues. Getting to the point of taking the step to expel him was hard.

COMMIT A FELONY, YOU WILL BE EXPELLED: This standard was set by Mr. Geralds’ expulsion. There was a sense the Legislature would not tolerate a member who was guilty of a felony, but until he was expelled it was never made clear. Some years before former Sen. Charles Youngblood, convicted of attempting to bribe a state official, resigned as the Senate prepared to expel him. And when Mr. Geralds was convicted of embezzling from a law client, he was under extraordinary pressure to resign, but he refused.

The Constitution prohibits someone convicted of a felony involving a breach of the public trust from serving in the Legislature. In 1978, the House asked then-Attorney General Frank Kelley if embezzlement was a breach of the public trust. Yes, but, Mr. Kelley said. Had Mr. Geralds committed the embezzlement while in office it would automatically be a breach. But the crime occurred before he took office, so it did not technically fall into that category.

The matter was left to the House, and by its action expelling Mr. Geralds made it clear a felony conviction would not be tolerated.

The lesson was not lost on former Sen. Art Cartwright. The Detroit Democrat had been convicted of falsifying expense reports. Little more than a week after Mr. Geralds was expelled, Mr. Cartwright resigned rather than face the same prospect in the Senate. Two decades later, former Sen. Henry Stallings, also a Detroit Democrat, who was also convicted of a felony, was minutes away from facing an expulsion vote when he resigned.

BEHAVIOR MATTERS: In his desperate attempts to stay in office, Mr. Jaye repeatedly said he had not been charged with a crime involved alleged assaults of his then fiancée. He offered seven amendments to the expulsion resolutions to change the action to a censure and making reference to the fact he had not been charged. The amendments were rejected.

Throughout his years in the Legislature, Mr. Jaye was notorious for being quick to anger, caring not a whit for anyone’s feelings, being willing to insult anyone in the Legislature or in the state, and just acting like an arrogant, boastful, boorish … twit. He seemed to have no sense of propriety. He was actually astonished that people would be upset when he dropped a gun on the floor of the House Republican caucus room just off the House floor. He was arrested for drunk driving and would publicly play the penitent, but privately acted as if was no big deal. He was actually shocked and pouty when former Rep. Shirley Johnson blasted him for being a loud and prominent racist (and she was attacked by many of Mr. Jaye’s supporters). During his expulsion hearings he seemed to have no understanding that he should not have had topless photos of his fiancée on his Senate computer.

What he showed, and what could apply in current circumstances, is that behavior that is unbecoming of a representative of the people is enough to get one expelled. Hijinks and practical jokes occur in the Legislature, since the Legislature has been known to devolve to the level of a fraternity party. But ongoing, constant, unending activities that demean the institution will not be tolerated, even if it means removing one.

BEHAVIOR MATTERS, PART II: Neither Mr. Geralds nor Mr. Jaye felt they should be expelled, clearly. Mr. Geralds handled his ordeal with dignity and grace. Mr. Jaye handled his with his well-known hubris.

On the day he was expelled, Mr. Geralds spoke briefly and calmly to the House. He outlined why he believed he should be retained. He made no attempt to change or derail the resolution expelling him. He had no lawyers with him. He was by himself. Mr. Geralds did not vote on the issue, leaving his judgment to his colleagues. And when he was expelled, he shook hands with his colleagues, wished them well, came to reporters and shook their hands and said he understood why he had been expelled. He would not criticize the House no matter how he was asked.

When Mr. Jaye was expelled, Senate leadership was worried enough about how he might act that all staff, except for critical Senate secretary staff, were barred from the Senate floor. Senate sergeants hovered near his desk. State Police officers were outside the chamber. Mr. Jaye had three lawyers with him. As already has been noted he attempted to change the resolution. And he did vote on the matter and was one of two no votes on the resolution.

But he was, as he had always seemed to be, over the top. Earlier in the day, the Senate had held its annual Memorial Day commemoration. Mr. Jaye said he wished the veterans who had been in the chamber earlier, could be in the chamber now to “watch the trampling of civil rights.”

That led to former Sen. Walter North, an Air Force veteran, to snap that he had not served his country “to provide freedom to people who abuse their office.”

And then-Senate Minority Leader John Cherry said Mr. Jaye was incapable of accepting blame. He would say he was sorry, Mr. Cherry said, and then blame others for his troubles.

When he was finally expelled, Mr. Jaye and his lawyers held a press conference in the Capitol rotunda that was more theater. Mr. Jaye proclaimed he had won a great moral victory for the people. He was suffering, he said, “payback by the GOP bosses” and that he had been subjected to a witch-hunt and Gestapo-like tactics.

At the same time he made those charges, his former colleagues told reporters if Mr. Jaye had acknowledged his difficulties, expressed genuine remorse and sought help he could have spared himself.

THE FINAL LESSON: There is an inherent contradiction in politics: You have a right to run for office; you have no right to hold office. You are in office at the sufferance of the public, and your colleagues have the duty to ensure that everyone in office recognizes that fact and behaves in a manner that respects the public’s dignity as well as the chamber’s. That ultimately is the reality anyone serving in office has to remember. They are a servant.

And when the servant is a legislator who belittles the job the public hired him or her for, the public is right to expect the legislator to either correct that behavior or be removed.