(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/20/2023) The Attorney General’s Flint water prosecution team appeared to grudgingly accept defeat Wednesdayas the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear appeals challenging the dismissal of criminal charges against seven former state officials.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, the prosecution team said they are “deeply disappointed” in the court’s ruling, noting that it “was not based on the facts of this case and did not in any way imply that the defendants are innocent.”
The team noted: “The Flint water crisis was not caused by an act of nature. It resulted from the direct actions of a small group of people in power who chose financial savings for the state over the health of Flint residents, and then conspired to hide the truth from the public.”
The team plans to explore the matter with the Legislature, prosecutorial partners and others to “take the necessary action to allow for the evidence to be shared with the public and the people of Flint, who most deserve to know the truth.” That statement could include attempts to release the grand jury information, which is confidential.
In separate orders, the court said it wasn’t persuaded to hear the AG’s appeal in felony cases of former Department of Health and Human Services director Nick Lyon, emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, chief medical executive Dr. Eden Wells and DHHS employee Nancy Peeler as well as Jarrod Agen and Richard Baird, who are former Gov. Rick Snyder’s communications director and advisor, respectively.
The Flint team told a Genesee County judge in September 2022 that they would pursue the Agen case with a warrant, but the statute of limitations could prohibit Attorney General Dana Nessel’s prosecution team from refiling charges against some of the former officials.
Misdemeanor charges against Snyder and former Flint public works director Howard Croft also were subsequently dismissed in district court. The AG’s appeal in Snyder’s case remains pending in the Supreme Court where briefs are still being filed, while an appeal in Croft’s case is pending in the Genesee County Circuit Court.
Lyon’s attorney, Charles Chamberlain, said they were “heartened” to see the court “stood firm in its unanimous decision from last year, holding” the criminal case against Lyon should be dismissed. He called the decision a “victory for public service in Michigan.”
“State employees should not be prosecuted or demonized for just doing their job,” Chamberlain said. “It is a great injustice to allow politicians - acting in their own interests - to sacrifice government servants who are performing their roles in good faith under difficult circumstances.”
In the statement, Lyon thanks his family and friends who “never wavered in their support” and DHHS' dedicated people “whose professionalism is second to none.”
Randall Levine, an attorney for Baird, said they are “elated” with the court's order, which “ends this unjust prosecution against Mr. Baird.” Levine said his client has had to “spend more than $1.2 million in legal fees on false accusations, which are not covered by the state.”
“We have maintained all along that there is no basis for the state prosecutor's appeal, and the one-person grand jury that they used in an attempt to convict my client is an antiquated process,” Levine said. “Mr. Baird can finally go on with his life without this case continuing to interfere with the stellar life that he has led and of which his family has been proud.”
Efforts to reach attorneys for the others have not been successful on Wednesday
Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement didn’t participate due to her prior involvement as chief legal counsel for Snyder, who appointed her to the bench in late 2017.
The nine former officials were indicted in January 2021 by a one-judge grand jury, which the Supreme Court said cannot issue indictments.
The prosecution team criticized the court’s June 2022 ruling Wednesday, saying it “upended decades of precedent.”
The process has been applied for more than 100 years, the prosecution team said, noting it has “resulted in thousands of prosecutions and convictions.”
After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Genesee County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Kelly threw out the felony charges against the seven who were indicted.
The Flint water crisis began in April 2014 when the city, then under state-ordered emergency manager control, switched its drinking water source to the Flint River, which wasn't properly treated, allowing lead to leach.
The water crisis is also attributed to a fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in 2014 and 2015, according to testimony at prior preliminary examinations held in Genesee’s District Court. Legionnaires' was a factor in at least 12 deaths, testimony indicated.
“The true scope of this disaster may never be fully known, but we know that adults and children were poisoned, and we know Flint residents died unaware that their drinking water was not just unsafe, but deadly,” the prosecution team said in a statement.
Under Snyder’s tenure, special prosecutor Todd Flood authorized charges against 15 city and state officials, including Lyon and Wells, but when Nessel took office in 2019, her Flint water crisis team dismissed Flood and dismissed all pending charges.
Under Flood’s tenure, there were no felony convictions or jail sentences, but seven people pleaded no contest to misdemeanors under plea deals that allowed the conviction to be expunged.
Agen and Baird each faced a 15-year felony alleging perjury, while Ambrose and Earley were charged with a five-year felony of misconduct in office. Baird also was charged with official misconduct in office, a five-year felony.
Lyon and Wells were each charged with nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, which is a 15-year offense, among other charges and Peeler faced five years for misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty.
