A second day of preliminary examination testimony in Lansing added sharp new financial detail to the embezzlement case against David Coker Jr., whose attorney is asking a district court judge to dismiss the charges before trial. Judge Kristen Simmons said she will issue her ruling on May 7.
Coker is a Clare businessman who formerly led both the Clare County Republican Party and the Clare Area Chamber of Commerce. He then comes as former aide to Republican ex-House Speaker Jason Wentworth, and faces seven felony counts filed by Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office last May. The charges stem from a $25 million state grant earmarked for a health park in Clare, of which the state had wired nearly $9.9 million to Coker’s nonprofit, Complete Health Park, on January 9, 2023.
Testimony last week established that two board members were uncomfortable with Coker’s control over the organization and that a state grants manager said Coker told him directly he was not personally profiting from the project. A claim prosecutors say was false…