A Livonia man who was charged with a felony last year after allegedly suggesting an Oakland County election official be hanged for treason is now suing the county sheriff’s office and prosecutor’s office for $5 million.

Lawyers Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi submitted the suit in Michigan’s Eastern District federal court on March 10, contending that their client, Andrew Hess, had been subjected to “a patently unconstitutional prosecution.”

“This political prosecution of plaintiff was an effort by defendants to silence an election challenger, and it was part of a broader effort to intimidate and silence those who question the integrity of our elections,” the attorneys wrote.

Jeff Wattrick, spokesman for the Oakland County prosecutor’s office, declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

The charge against Hess stemmed from a ballot recount in Oakland County on Dec. 15, 2023, that centered on a Royal Oak proposal to allow for ranked choice voting. At one point that day, Hess walked outside of the recount room and stated, “hang Joe for treason,” referring to Joe Rozell, the director of elections in Oakland County, according to Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald’s office.

The situation played out less than a year before the November 2024 presidential election and as pressure, bolstered by unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud, mounted on the individuals who administer elections in Michigan.

Hess told The Detroit News in an interview on Jan. 10, 2024, that it was a possibility that he had made a remark at the recount about treason and hanging.

“I very regularly tell people the penalty for treason is hanging by the neck,” Hess said during the interview.

Muise previously argued that claiming an election official who cheats on elections should be prosecuted for treason and punished accordingly is protected speech and not an actionable threat.

McDonald announced on April 1, 2024, her decision to charge Hess with a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $20,000, citing a state law that bans people from making a terrorist threat or making a false report of terrorism.

But in February, in a separate case out of Wayne County, a three-judge Michigan Court of Appeals panel unanimously found the law Hess was charged under was unconstitutional. The law violated the First Amendment because it does not account for a person’s state of mind while making the alleged threat, the judges determined.

The Court of Appeals ruling led to the charge against Hess being dismissed in an Oakland County district court on March 6, according to Muise. If the Michigan Supreme Court eventually overturns the Court of Appeals decision on the terrorist threat law, the Oakland County prosecutor will re-charge Hess, according to the Hess lawsuit.

“Plaintiff is a young father of four children,” the suit says. “The unlawful felony prosecution hung like a sword over his head and over the heads of his wife and young children for nearly a year.”

Because of his prosecution, Hess suffered irreparable harm and emotional distress, had to surrender his concealed pistol license, couldn’t obtain additional employment because he failed the background check and couldn’t venture out of state to purchase a puppy for his family for Christmas because of travel restrictions, the suit says.

The suit seeks $5 million in damages against the defendants and for Oakland County “to permanently expunge all records referencing or relating to Plaintiff’s arrest, charge and prosecution.” The named defendants include McDonald, Rozell and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Detroit News Writer Kara Berg contributed to this report