Six more workers charged in Flint’s drinking water crisis
Six current or former state employees were charged Friday with misconduct and other crimes in the Flint water crisis, bringing to nine the number of public officials facing prosecution over the lead contamination that alarmed parents across the country.
Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a total of 18 new charges against three employees from the Department of Environmental Quality — Liane Shekter Smith, Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook — and three from the Department of Health and Human Services — Nancy Peeler, Corinne Miller and Robert Scott. In addition to the misconduct in office charges, there were wilful neglect of duty and various conspiracy counts.
“Each attempted to bury or cover up, downplay or hide info that contradicted their own narrative, their story ... (that) there’s nothing wrong with Flint water, it’s perfectly safe to use. In essence, these individuals concealed the truth and they were criminally wrong to do so,” Schuette said at a news conference in the poor, predominantly black city of nearly 100,000 people 90 kilometres north of Detroit.
Under the leadership of a stateappointed emergency manager, officials in April 2014 began using the Flint River as Flint’s water supply to save money. State officials didn’t require that the river water be treated for corrosion, and lead from aging pipes and fixtures leached into Flint homes and businesses. The city remained on that water supply for 18 months, despite complaints from residents about its smell and colour.
Elevated levels of the toxin were discovered in children. Lead contamination has been linked to learning disabilities and other problems.
The announcement Friday represented the second round of charges stemming from the water crisis. In January, Schuette announced the appointment of a special counsel to help his office investigate whether laws were broken. In April, two state regulators and a city employee were charged with official misconduct, evidence-tampering and other offences.
In June, Schuette filed a lawsuit against two water engineering companies, saying their negligence caused and exacerbated Flint’s leadtainted water crisis and demanding what could total hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Shekter Smith, former head of the state’s drinking water office, appeared last month in a Detroit courtroom so her lawyer could assert her constitutional right against self-incrimination amid ongoing investigations. She hadn’t yet been charged but was reassigned and her firing was announced in February.
Shekter Smith’s attorney, Brian Morley, said Friday that he was surprised she was charged.
“It’s disappointing . ... I think we’re going to be really hard-pressed to find that she did anything wrong, and certainly nothing criminally wrong,” he said.
Four of those charged Friday have been suspended without pay.
The Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services departments said two workers from each department are off the job for now. The two other people charged Friday had either already retired or been fired.
Andy Arena, the lead investigator who once led Detroit’s FBI office, say nobody is off-limits from investigation or prosecution. “You don’t start at the top,” Arena said. “We’re starting to work our way up, and expanding our investigation.”
Gov. Rick Snyder has apologized for regulatory failures, and the state environmental agency has said it wasn’t required to add an anti-corrosion chemical until after a year of testing.