Ex-Prosecutor Gets 6-20 Years For Murder Plot Against Lawyer

TRAVERSE CITY (WWJ/AP) - A former Traverse City-area prosecutor has been sentenced to six to 20 years in prison for trying to have another lawyer killed.

Grand Traverse County Circuit Judge Philip Rodgers issued the sentence Thursday to 59-year-old Clarence Gomery, who pleaded guilty Feb. 6 to solicitation to murder.

Gomery admitted to offering money to a man to kill Chris Cooke, a lawyer representing an ex-business partner who sued him over a bad golf course deal. A judge in 2013 imposed $300,000 in sanctions on Gomery in that case.

Gomery said his life was "falling apart" at the time. Judge Rogers said the murder plot seemed to be a result of greed and arrogance.

Gomery has served as a prosecutor in Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties in the northern Lower Peninsula.

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