Official to stand trial in Flint case
Michigan’s state health director facing charges of manslaughter
FLINT, Mich. — A judge on Monday ordered Michigan’s state health director to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in two deaths linked to Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, the highest ranking official to stand trial as a result of the tainted water scandal.
Nick Lyon is accused of failing to issue a timely alert to the public about the outbreak. State Judge David Goggins said deaths likely could have been prevented if the outbreak had been publicly known, and keeping the public in the dark was “corrupt.”
Some experts have blamed the outbreak on the scandal over Flint’s water, which wasn’t properly treated when it was drawn from the Flint River in 2014 and 2015.
“It’s a long way from over,” Lyon said after the judge’s order. He declined further comment. The state says at least 90 cases of Legionnaires’ disease occurred in Genesee County, including 12 deaths. Lyon denies wrongdoing.
The investigation is part of a larger probe into how Flint’s water system became poisoned when the city used Flint River water for 18 months. The water wasn’t treated to reduce corrosion. As a result, lead leached from old pipes.
Lyon, director of the Health and Human Services Department, is the highest-ranking Michigan official charged in an investigation led by the attorney general’s office.
An additional 14 current or former state and local officials have been charged with crimes, either related to Legionnaires’ or lead in the water.
The outbreak was announced by Gov. Rick Snyder and Lyon in January 2016, although Lyon concedes that he knew that cases were being reported a year earlier.
“He had the chance to save lives,” special prosecutor Todd Flood told the court at a July 25 hearing.
But Lyon’s attorneys have questioned the causes of death of two people cited by Flood. They also say there was much speculation about the cause and not enough solid information to share with the public.
“It is not enough for the prosecutor to wave his hands in the air and cry bad things happened to the people of Flint so someone must be held responsible,” Lyon’s lawyers said in a court filing.