By Janjabill Tahsin
Staff Writer
The Michigan Supreme Court decided to decline to hear appeals from a lower court, meaning state prosecutors can no longer pursue criminal cases against former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other officials for their roles in the Flint water crisis, where a 2014 switch of the city’s drinking water source led to contamination and widespread health concerns.
“At this time the court has left us with no option but to consider the Flint water prosecutions closed,” the prosecution team appointed by Michigan Attorney General stated.
Prosecution efforts had stretched over seven years and spanned the terms of two attorney generals. In September, the state supreme court rejected the prosecutors' last-ditch effort to revive criminal charges. The attorney general’s office used a one-judge grand jury to hear evidence and return indictments against nine people, including Snyder, according to NPR, but the Supreme Court ruled last year that the process was unconstitutional and that the charges were invalid.
However, state prosecutors returned to Flint courts and argued that the charges could be easily restored with a simple refiling of documents. That position was rejected all the way to the highest court in the state.
“We are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this court,” said the Supreme Court in a series of one-sentence orders.
Snyder was charged with a misdemeanor, willful neglect of duty. The indictment against him was also dismissed, though the Supreme Court did not address an appeal by prosecutors’ in September only because that case is on a different timetable, according to TIME.
Snyder’s former chief of staff, Jarrod Agen; another key aide, Rich Baird; former Flint Managers, Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Early; former City Public Works Director, Howard Croft, and former health official, Nancy Peeler, also had indictments thrown out against them.
Snyder, a Republican, acknowledged that the managers he appointed mishandled the water switch when the city switched its drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in a cost-saving move, but the water was not treated to reduce its corrosive impact on old pipes. Lead contaminated the system for 18 months and resulted in a series of major water quality and health issues for Flint residents, causing skin rashes, hair loss and itchy skin.
Experts have also attributed a fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in 2014-15 to the water switch, and former state health director, Nick Lyon, and former chief medical executive, Eden Wells, were charged with involuntary manslaughter in nine deaths linked to Legionnaires’. They were accused of failing to warn the Flint area about the outbreak in a timely manner.
In 2015, regulators said Flint was reconnected to a regional water supply and has been compliant with lead standards for seven years.
Later studies have shown that the percentage of elevated blood lead levels increased after the city’s drinking water source changed, with children’s blood lead levels doubling—and in some cases, tripling, particularly in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Snyder’s lawyers, however, deny his conduct rose to a level of a crime.
The prosecution team said, “Our disappointment in the Michigan Supreme Court is exceeded only by our sorrow for the people of Flint,” and it expects next year to release a “full and thorough report” detailing its efforts and decisions.
Separately, the state agreed to pay $600 million as a part of a $626 million settlement with lead-tainted water victims, and the majority of the money is going to go to children.
