Officials face manslaughter charges over Flint water
12 died from polluted drinking supply
Michigan’s attorney general charged health officials Wednesday over the Flint drinking-water crisis.
Six officials are charged in all — five with involuntary manslaughter — according to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. “We are confident that the charges that we have filed will be upheld in the courts,” he said. The officials charged: Nick Lyon, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, is charged with felonies: involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office, both felonies.
Eden Wells, the department’s chief medical executive, is charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer, also felonies. Darnell Earley, Flint’s former state emergency manager, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He previously was charged with felony false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses, misconduct in office and a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty. Howard Croft, Flint’s former Water Department manager, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He previously was charged with false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses.
Liane Shekter- Smith, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s drinking water chief, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. She previously was charged with felony misconduct in office and misdemeanor willful neglect of duty.
Stephen Busch, the district supervisor for the Office of Drinking Water, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He previously was charged with felony misconduct in office, tampering with evidence, conspiracy to tam- per with evidence and two misdemeanor counts of the Michigan Safe Water Drinking Act.
The charges are related to a 17-month Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in 2014 and 2015 in the Flint area that led to 12 deaths after the city’s water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014. Dozens more were sickened with this severe type of pneumonia that usually affects six to 15 people annually in the county where Flint is located. Flint’s drinking water was contaminated with lead in April 2014 after the city switched from treated Lake Huron water supplied from Detroit to raw water from the Flint River that was treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials have acknowledged a mistake in failing to require corrosion-control chemicals to be added to the water. As a result, lead leached from pipes, joints and fixtures into water flowing through homes’ faucets.
No charges are planned against Michigan’s governor since 2011, Rick Snyder, Schuette said. But Schuette’s investigation is continuing.
“We have attempted to interview the governor, ( but) we were not successful,” Schuette said. Before being elected in 2010, the Republican governor was chairman of computer maker Gateway and venture-capital firm Ardesta.
Health department officials released a statement from Snyder saying that he stands behind Lyon and Wells and that they would remain in their jobs pending trial. 67th District Court Judge G. David Guinn authorized the charges Wednesday in Flint.
Lyon, 49, of Marshall, Mich., is accused of causing the death of Robert Skidmore on Dec. 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a foreseeable outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
“Defendant Lyon was aware of Genesee County’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at least by Jan. 28, 2015, and did not notify the public until a year later,” the charging documents allege.
Lyon “willfully disregarded the deadly nature of the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak,” according to charging document. He later is alleged to have said he “can’t save everyone,” and “everyone has to die of something.”