A New York attorney for Flint, Michigan, who is representing thousands of children who were poisoned by lead by drinking contaminated water from the city’s Flint River, has come under fire for comments he made about the city in a 2018 podcast episode that recently resurfaced.
Corey Stern can be heard referring to the city, whose majority Black population has for several years dealt with a clean water crisis, as an “s–hole” on an episode of the “Race Wars” podcast that first aired on Aug. 2, 2018, the Detroit Free Press reported.
In the episode, Stern uses the expletive to describe the city during a conversation with the hosts about U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and how he was a fan of the Democratic former presidential candidate.
“In 2016, when Bernie ran against Hillary … I had a T-shirt, my kids had T-shirts, we were all Bernie people,” Stern said in the 2018 podcast episode.
The attorney, who described himself earlier in the episode as a liberal, continued, saying, “So, I like Bernie. In 2016, I’m like in Flint, Michigan, fighting for these kids. I’m spending time there; it’s a s–hole, and nobody wants to be there. I’m there every week.”
The comments were recently brought to attention during a recent episode of the “Roland Martin Unfiltered” digital public affairs program, according to the Detroit Free Press.
After host Roland Martin played the soundbite from the 2018 podcast during his show, Kevin Thompson, pastor of the Saint Mark Baptist Church of Flint, responded to Martin, “They have to do their research because if they did the research, they will understand that we were the leaders in the automobile industry, causing the world to turn.”
Thompson also said, “This is a wonderful city….It’s hard to hear something like that in the city that I’m born and raised, and I have to stand up for the people of the city of Flint.”
Stern also noted in the podcast episode that he recommended structuring the settlement money in a way that pays the young clients over their lifetime so they “have some steady stream of income.”
A podcast host commented, “Especially if these kids had arrested development once they had the lead poisoning, you got a 13-year-old ….now he got a $2 million check, it’s gonna be some dead prostitutes,” and laughter is heard.
Stern adds, “And a lot of cocaine,” followed by more laughter in the room, as is heard on the podcast.
Stern’s resurfaced comments came ahead of the 10-year anniversary of Flint’s water crisis in April.
The Detroit Free Press reported that as of now, no Flint resident has yet received money from the $626 million civil settlement that was approved by a federal judge in 2021.
A publicist from Veolia North America, one of the Flint contractors that Stern is suing, reportedly shared comments last week about the coverage of Stern’s comments on Martin’s show.
In an email, a Veolia North America spokesperson told Atlanta Black Star that, according to an earlier email shared about Stern’s comments, Stern “was exposed for making derogatory comments about his clients and the city of Flint, even as their case has made him and his fellow lawyers nearly two hundred million dollars.”
Stern responded to the comments by stating that the contractor took his remarks out of context and accusing the contractor of helping to resurface the old podcast comments to “shift the narrative” in ongoing litigation, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Stern said in an emailed statement to the newspaper, “For years, Veolia has used a public relations machine to shift the narrative from their role in the Flint Water Crisis. In Veolia’s latest PR maneuver, it is peddling to the media a four-second snippet from a five-year-old podcast.
“In that podcast, which lasted over an hour, I talked at length about the damage caused by childhood lead poisoning and the tragic outcomes likely to occur for kids in Flint. But, Veolia denies that any children were lead poisoned in Flint and even denies that the water was unsafe. Instead, Veolia continues to attempt to distract from its role in the Water Crisis by attacking the lawyers representing the victims,” Stern’s statement read, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Boston-based Veolia North America said earlier this month that it had reached a $25 million settlement over its role in the Flint water crisis, with payments of $1,500 expected to go to individual minors.
