Michigan Supreme Court action signals end for prosecution in 2014 Flint water crisis

The Michigan Supreme Court has issued an order indicating it will not hear the state's appeal against former Gov. Rick Snyder, the final attempt by state prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against the officials involved in the 2014 Flint water crisis.

State prosecutors conceded the order issued Tuesday by the court signals the end of criminal prosecutions stemming from the emergency, which began in 2014 when the city switched water sources and lead, a neurotoxin particularly dangerous to children, leached into the city's water supply. As the city struggled with water quality, it also saw an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and deaths.

Snyder, a Republican, was governor at the time. He faced two counts of willful neglect of duty by a public official, a misdemeanor.

The order responds to − and shuts down − an appeal filed this year by the state's Flint Water Prosecution Team to reopen Snyder's case. Criminal charges against Snyder and other former state officials were dismissed after the Michigan Supreme Court last year ruled a judge improperly acted as a "one-man grand jury" to indict the officials.

After the court ruled prosecutors erred procedurally, cases were remanded to lower courts for dismissal. Attempts by the state to revive the cases were unsuccessful at every level.

Prosecutors sought charges against nine in Flint water crisis

State prosecutors, led by Deputy Attorney General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, had sought charges against nine former officials:

• Snyder
• Nick Lyon, former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director
• Dr. Eden Wells, former Michigan chief medical executive
• Nancy Peeler, former MDHHS early childhood health section manager
• Howard Croft, former Flint Department of Public Works official
• Richard Baird and Jarrod Agen, former Snyder aides
• Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, former Flint emergency managers

In September, Michigan Supreme Court justices declined to hear appeals in seven of the other officials' cases. Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement has not participated in the cases, citing her former occupation as Snyder's chief legal counsel.

“Today, our Supreme Court has put the final nail in the coffin of the Flint Water Prosecutions,” prosecutors said in a joint statement Tuesday. “The Court decided that a process which has stood in place for over a century, one whose legitimacy the Court upheld repeatedly, was simply not ‘good enough’ to hold those responsible for the Flint Water Crisis accountable for their actions. Our disappointment in the Michigan Supreme Court is exceeded only by our sorrow for the people of Flint.” 

The prosecution team said it aims to release a full report next year on its efforts to bring criminal charges in the cases.

State law currently prohibits the evidence presented to Judge David Newblatt, who served as the one-man grand jury and indicted the former officials, from being made public. In a news release, prosecutors said they plan on working with state lawmakers to change this law.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, had appointed Hammoud and Worthy to lead the state's prosecution in the water crisis cases after taking office in 2019. Since the attorney general represented the state in civil litigation, Nessel implemented a "conflict wall" that kept her involvement away from the criminal prosecution stemming from the crisis. 

After taking on the cases, state prosecutors tossed out previous charges brought forward by Nessel's predecessor, Attorney General Bill Schuette, and relaunched an expanded inquiry. At the time, Nessel said in a statement to Flint residents that "justice delayed is not always justice denied.”

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @arpanlobo.

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