Indictments Over Flint Drinking Water Contamination Dropped, Charges Wiped For Top Officials
Charges against state officials who were responsible for the safety and health of Michigan consumers during the Flint drinking water crisis have now been dismissed because they were issued by a single judge acting as grand juror.
“A judge had no authority to issue indictments in the Flint water scandal, the Michigan Supreme Court said … in an extraordinary decision that wipes out charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and seven other people,” according to Up North Live. “State laws ‘authorize a judge to investigate, subpoena witnesses, and issue arrest warrants’ as a one-person grand jury, the Supreme Court said. ‘But they do not authorize the judge to issue indictments.’”
Flint water managers, appointed by Snyder, switched the city’s water supply to a more corrosive source without conducting the due diligence needed to discover that this would bring dangerously high levels of lead contamination into residents’ homes. Eventually, a public health emergency was declared, bringing national attention to the danger of the outdated drinking water infrastructure in the city, as well as the failures of public officials to react promptly.
“In bringing charges last year against Michigan officials, including Gov. Rick Snyder, prosecutors said they had failed to protect the safety and health of Flint residents, who were sickened by increased levels of lead and by Legionnaires’ disease after the city’s water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014,” The New York Times reported. “The water crisis, which resulted in elevated lead levels among thousands of people in Flint, has left countless families distrustful of the water supply, even as city officials insist that it is now safe to drink.”
Though Flint drinking water victims have received some compensation, it is hard to imagine that this latest decision by the Michigan Supreme Court will help to reinstate any trust of officials in the minds of city residents. And it’s still not clear why the prosecution team decided to issue the indictments via a one-judge grand jury.
Since the state supreme court’s decision, the prosecution team has asked a lower court to maintain the validity of the charges, rather than dismiss them. But it appears that tactic will run into legal issues as well.
“In Michigan, most crimes carry a statute of limitations that bars prosecution after six years has elapsed since the alleged offense,” per The Detroit News. “It’s likely that those whose charges appear to date to 2015 and early 2016 and fall under the six-year time limit … will attempt to block the reauthorization of charges on the argument that the statute of limitations has run out.”
To read more about how drinking water operations handle the infrastructure that can cause lead contamination, visit Water Online’s Drinking Water Distribution Solutions Center.