A years-long court battle in Michigan to advance state-level prosecutions over the Flint water crisis has foundered as state officials formally close the case with no convictions.
The Flint prosecution team of Attorney General Dana Nessel — led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy — said the Flint water cases are now “closed.”
Nessel’s office decided to end its pursuit of charges after the Michigan Supreme Court rejected its most recent attempt to indict Gov. Rick Snyder again.
The team called the Supreme Court’s decisions in the case “heartbreaking” and said they were based on procedural flaws and not on the actual merits of the prosecution.
The case’s total failure grievously anguished Flint residents, who have been plagued by the crisis for nearly a decade.
“It’s outrageous what’s happened,” Claire McClinton, a lifelong Flint resident and retired General Motors worker, told the Detroit Free Press. “What we’ve been saying in the community, it’s either been treachery or incompetence. And we, as residents of the city of Flint are on the losing end.”
“Decisions made about us in Flint without us always lead to disaster,” Flint resident Melissa Mays told The Detroit News. “As long as you’re wealthy, white, or a government official, accountability doesn’t matter. There’s no justice for people who don’t look like them.”
The Flint water crisis began in 2014 when the city switched water sources while under emergency management by the state. Snyder was the one whose administration appointed the city managers to oversee that change. Due to the gross neglect of corrosion controls, lead leaked from the pipes into the water supply, leading to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, which killed at least 12 people and infected dozens more.
Prosecution against city and state officials began in 2016 under former Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette. The case made some headway under Schuette’s lead. More than a dozen people were initially charged, and seven people entered into no-contest misdemeanor plea deals. However, when Nessel, a Democrat, was elected, she disbanded Schuette’s team, appointed her own, and dismissed the remaining cases, opting to start from scratch.
Her prosecution team attempted to charge Snyder with neglect of duty in 2021 and indict eight other people, including two former Flint emergency managers, a top aide to Mr. Snyder, and two high-ranking public health officials.
However, it only took one decisive ruling from the Michigan Supreme Court in 2022 to diminish Nessel’s case. Justices decided that her team erred in using a one-judge grand jury to indict Snyder and the other officials. The case only continued to founder. Lower courts dismissed the cases, and subsequent appeals were unsuccessful.
“I wish this dismissal would represent the end of political persecutions in Michigan forever,” Snyder said following the case’s closing. “Unfortunately, the only way to end political persecutions would require electing attorney generals and prosecutors who believe in facts, have a moral compass, and act with civility.”
“First, they let the true criminals off the hook, then they charged innocent people with horrible crimes, and after wasting tens of millions of dollars, everyone is now justifiably frustrated,” Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech water expert who discovered the city’s lead-contaminated water, said. “Perhaps it is a fitting ending to this tragic tale of government failure and incompetence.”
The Detroit News reports that the state of Michigan has spent at least $60 million on legal fees alone so far on seven years of civil and criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis. That total doesn’t include the $47 million ordered for lawyers leading the civil suit against the state, the yet-to-be-determined attorney fees owed to Snyder for the disclosure of protected documents, and about a year of yet-to-be-tallied expenses from Nessel’s office.
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