‘Our Lives Don’t Matter’: Flint Residents Left Stunned As Prosecutors Drop All Criminal Charges Against Officials

Some officials had been facing charges as serious as involuntary manslaughter in the case over the water contamination crisis that crippled the city of Flint, Michigan. The prosecutors say that the initial investigation was bungled and it is opting to launch a new but expanded probe. But the decision was a blow to residents who were already suspicious of the government.

The New York Times: Flint Water Prosecutors Drop Criminal Charges, With Plans To Keep Investigating 

 Fifteen state and local officials, including emergency managers who ran the city and a member of the governor’s cabinet, had been accused by state prosecutors of crimes as serious as involuntary manslaughter. Seven had already taken plea deals. Eight more, including most of the highest-ranking officials, were awaiting trial. On Thursday, more than three years after the first charges were filed, the Michigan attorney general’s office, which earlier this year passed from Republican to Democratic hands, abruptly dropped the eight remaining cases. Prosecutors left open the possibility of recharging some of those same people, and perhaps others, too. (Smith, 6/13)

The Associated Press: Charges Dropped For 8 People In The Flint Water Scandal 

 Seven people pleaded no contest earlier to misdemeanors in deals that will leave them without a criminal record. Charges were dropped against the other eight Thursday when prosecutors announced they were restarting the investigation. (6/13)

Detroit Free Press: All Flint Water Crisis Criminal Charges Dismissed By AG's Office 

 Flint residents reacted with shock and confusion. The statement from the Office of Attorney General Dana Nessel said the dismissals were a response to problems with the original investigation, launched in 2016 under former Attorney General Bill Schuette, and don't preclude recharging the original defendants or adding new ones. (Egan, 6/13)

NPR: Charges Dropped In Flint Drinking Water Investigation, Officials Vow New Probe 

 Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the dramatic shift in a statement Thursday. "I want to remind the people of Flint that justice delayed is not always justice denied and a fearless and dedicated team of career prosecutors and investigators are hard at work to ensure those who harmed you are held accountable," Nessel said. (Gonzales, 6/13) </s> June 13 (UPI) -- Michigan prosecutors dropped all criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis Thursday in order to give the attorney general's office more time to investigate.

Michigan Deputy Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud said she and Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy found new evidence in the investigation into the crisis that left at least 12 people dead.

The office is dropping the manslaughter cases of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and form Chief Medical executive Eden Wells, as well as cases against six other state and city officials. Their cases could be reopened in the future.

The investigation into the cause and liabilities related to the Flint water crisis began under the tenure of former Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, but Dana Nessel took over the office earlier this year.

Nessel appointed Hammoud and Worthy to review the criminal cases.

"I trust them and if this step is necessary for them to do a comprehensive and complete investigation," Nessel said, "I am in absolute support.

"I want to remind the people of Flint that justice delayed is not always justice denied and a fearless and dedicated team of career prosecutors and investigators are hard at work to ensure those who harmed you are held accountable."

The water crisis began April 25, 2014, when city officials switched Flint's water supply from treated Lake Huron and Detroit water to raw water from the Flint River, which was then treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant. The new source wasn't sufficiently cleaned and lead leached from the city's old pipes into the water supply, poisoning about 100,000 Flint residents over a period of 17 months. At least 12 people died from Legionnaires' disease linked to the contaminated water, and the city faced dozens of lawsuits that accused officials of recklessness and negligence.

Marc Edwards, an environmental engineer professor at Virginia Tech who helped uncover the water contamination, testified before Congress in February 2016 that state and federal officials tried to cover up proof of high lead levels. He said Susan Herman, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's former Midwest chief, and Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality dismissed information about contaminants in the city's water system. </s> DETROIT -- Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges Thursday against eight people in the Flint water crisis and pledged to start from scratch the investigation into one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history.

The stunning decision came more than three years - and millions of dollars - after authorities began examining the roots of the scandal that left Flint's water system tainted with lead. Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, who took control of the investigation in January after the election of a new attorney general, said “all available evidence was not pursued” by the previous team of prosecutors.

Officials took possession this week of “millions of documents and hundreds of new electronic devices, significantly expanding the scope of our investigation,” Hammoud and Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.

The efforts “have produced the most comprehensive body of evidence to date related to the Flint water crisis,” they said, putting investigators “in the best possible position to find the answers the citizens of Flint deserve.”

Hammoud's team recently used search warrants to get state-owned mobile devices of former Gov. Rick Snyder and 66 other people from storage.

Among those who had charges dismissed: Michigan's former health director, Nick Lyon, who was accused of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly failing to alert the public in a timely fashion about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease when Flint was drawing improperly treated water from the Flint River in 2014 and 2015.

The dismissal came a day before a judge planned to announce whether a 2018 decision to send Lyon to trial would stand. Dropping the charges with just hours to spare killed the possibility of an adverse ruling and still gives prosecutors the freedom to haul Lyon into court again.

Nonetheless, defence attorney Chip Chamberlain said they “feel fantastic and vindicated.”

“We're confident that a just and fair investigation, done properly, will yield no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing,” he said.

Hammoud said she would not speak to reporters until after a June 28 town hall-style meeting with Flint residents. Her boss, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, said a “fearless” team was still on the case.

“Justice delayed is not always justice denied,” Nessel said in a statement.

“We don't know if new charges will be filed,” LeeAnne Walters, who is credited with exposing the lead contamination, told The Associated Press. “It feels kind of degrading, like all that we went through doesn't matter. Our city was poisoned, my children have health issues and the people responsible just had all the charges dropped against them.”

While waiting for a new pipeline to bring water from Lake Huron, Flint, a majority-black city of 100,000, pulled water from a river without treating it to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes. Lead contaminated the distribution system in a community where 41% of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty.

Because of its poor finances, Flint was being run by financial managers appointed by Snyder. The uproar over water quality reached a peak by fall 2015, when a doctor reported high levels of lead in children, which can cause brain damage.

Some experts also have linked the water to Legionnaires' disease, a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water and infect the lungs. People can get sick if they inhale mist or vapour, typically from cooling systems.

Flint's water no longer comes from the river and has significantly improved, but some residents are so distrustful that they continue to use bottled water.

The criminal probe began in 2016, when Bill Schuette was attorney general. He hired a Detroit-area lawyer, Todd Flood, as special prosecutor. Andy Arena, the former head of the FBI in Detroit, was a key investigator.

No one is behind bars. Seven of 15 people charged pleaded no contest to misdemeanours. Their records will eventually be scrubbed clean.

Charges were pending against eight people, including former Michigan chief medical executive Eden Wells and two men, Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley, who were state-appointed emergency managers in Flint. Like Lyon, Wells was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

“We understand that there will be further investigation, but do not expect it to justify any further prosecution relative to her,” Wells' attorneys, Steven Tramontin and Jerold Lax, said.

Through March, the investigation and prosecution had cost about $9.5 million, records show. State agencies separately have spent millions of dollars to provide defence lawyers to public employees.

Hammoud dismissed Flood in April and put together a new team. Flood told Detroit television station WJBK on Thursday that he wishes “all the luck in the world” to Hammoud, but he did not directly address the dismissal of cases that he had filed.

“We had an experienced, aggressive and hard-driving team. Everything we did was for the people of Flint,” Schuette, Flood's former boss, said on Twitter. </s> June 13 (Reuters) - Michigan prosecutors on Thursday dropped all criminal charges over the deadly contamination of the city of Flint's water, saying a more thorough investigation was needed before they could proceed with the case.

The charges were brought by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal prosecutorial agency, and were based on an investigation that state prosecutors described as "flawed."

"Dismissing these cases allows us to move forward according to the non-negotiable requirements of a thorough, methodical and ethical investigation," Michigan's Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a statement.

Eight former state and city officials, including Michigan's chief medical officer Eden Wells, faced criminal charges for their roles in the water crisis which killed 12 people and sickened over 70, one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history.

According to the prosecutors, the OSC made agreements that gave law firms representing state agencies and officials a role in deciding what information would be turned over to law enforcement during their investigation. As a result, not all evidence was pursued, they said.

Additional investigation by the prosecution team has already identified more individuals of interest in the case, they said.

Flint's troubles began in 2014 after the city switched its water supply to the Flint River from Lake Huron to cut costs. Corrosive river water caused lead to leach from pipes, contaminating the drinking water and causing an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease.

Prosecutors said they dropped charges "without prejudice," meaning they could be brought again once a new investigation is completed.

"Justice delayed is not always justice denied," Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.

But Michigan Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, a Democrat who represents Flint, expressed his disappointment.

"Months of investigation have turned into years, and the only thing to show for it is a bunch of lawyers who have gotten rich off the taxpayers´ dime," he said in a statement. "The people of Flint believe that they will never see justice, and sadly, so far they´ve been proven right."

The U.S. Supreme Court in March allowed two class-action lawsuits filed by Flint residents, who are pursuing civil rights claims against local and state officials. (Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Bill Tarrant and James Dalgleish) </s> Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Prosecutors investigating the deadly lead-poisoned water crisis in Flint, Michigan, dropped criminal charges against eight people, including the former head of the state's health department.

The Department of Attorney General said in a press release on Thursday that the decision to dismiss the charges is "not a determination of any defendant’s criminal responsibility" and stems from concerns over how the Office of Special Counsel handled the investigation.

According to officials, the OSC "entered into agreements that gave private law firms" a role in deciding what information would be turned over to law enforcement.

The eight criminal cases involved various crimes, including involuntary manslaughter, for failing to alert the public about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in 2014 and 2015 that killed at least 12 people.

The outbreak occurred at the same time Flint's water system was contaminated with lead.

Among those charged was Nick Lyon, who was then the director of the Michigan health department. Lyon was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Special agent Jeff Seipenko told a judge that Lyon was made aware of the outbreak in January 2015 but did not alert the public until nearly a year later. Seipenko said Lyon's failure to tell the public resulted in at least one person dying.

Dr. Eden Wells, the state's chief medical officer, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter as well as lying to a special police agent and obstruction of justice, according to The Detroit News.

"We are not precluded from refiling charges against the defendants or adding new charges and additional defendants," said Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy in a joint statement.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday that she supports Hammoud and Worthy's decision to dismiss the charges if it helps them conduct a "comprehensive and complete investigation."

The city of Flint began using the Flint River as its water supply in 2014, but did not treat it for corrosion after lead from old plumbing seeped into the water. Some experts have said that the contaminated water led to an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, a severe form of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrives in warm water.

In 2014 and 2015, there were nearly 100 cases of the disease in the Flint area, resulting in the deaths and sickening another 72 people. </s> New Democratic leadership in the investigation into the Flint water crisis has sparked hope among activists that a tougher line will be taken on prosecuting officials and compensating victims of the environmental disaster.

The move comes after three years of Republicans leading the investigation saw 15 state and city officials face criminal charges or be prosecuted over decisions that led to at least 12 deaths, and likely sickened thousands more. At the same time, hundreds of civil lawsuits representing tens of thousands of victims are working their way through state and federal courts.

But critics say there’s been little accountability when Republicans headed the investigation and its targets have been let off lightly. None of the crisis’s perpetrators have paid a fine or served a day in jail for poisoning the city’s water or the subsequent cover-up. Likewise, the state isn’t paying reparations for the deaths or health problems resulting from Flint’s lead-tainted water.

Now newly elected Democratic Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel has taken over the investigation from 1 January. She enters office after a 2018 campaign in which she labeled the prosecutions “politically charged show trials” designed to benefit her predecessor, Republican Bill Schuette, who ran for governor last year.

Though Schuette’s special prosecutor, Todd Flood, initially charged suspects with felonies like involuntary manslaughter and false pretenses, he ended up negotiating seven plea deals for misdemeanors as minor as “disturbing the peace at a public meeting”.

At the same time, Schuette spent over $25m in taxpayer money on legal fees, some of which funded the state’s fights against the civil lawsuits seeking compensation.

But Nessel has pledged to fully re-evaluate the investigation, and after a week in office she announced a dramatic shift in the state’s approach to Flint.

On the criminal side, Nessel asked a Democratic prosecutor to review and take over the investigation. That could lead to more charges, or frivolous charges being dropped. Nessel also directed the state to settle civil lawsuits brought against it, which would result in victims finally receiving compensation.

With Democrats now investigating Flint, there’s a sense among many activists and community leaders that Michigan is finally serious about seeking justice for victims. The Republican-led investigation “was never about the state taking responsibility and making sure that the health of Flint’s families was the focus,” said Michigan senate minority leader and Flint resident Jim Ananich.

“It was about trying to protect the governor’s image and do public relations, and now it will be about getting Flint the justice it deserves, and making families whole,” he said.

The shift may also highlight the failure of the Republicans’ austerity measures in Michigan that many say are the crisis’s source. In November 2012, voters repealed governor Rick Snyder and the Republican-controlled legislature’s controversial emergency financial manager law. But Republicans reworked the law and rammed through a new version two months later, paving the way for Snyder to install a financial manager in Flint.

That financial manager in April 2014 ordered the city to begin pulling water from the Flint river instead of purchasing it from Detroit as a cost saving measure. Soon after, Flint’s water turned dark as residents began experiencing lead poisoning symptoms and dying from Legionnaires disease.

A series of meaningful sentences and payouts could be viewed not just as a condemnation of those involved in the immediate crisis, but wider Republican policies, as well.

“This happens sometimes with both parties – they don’t want to admit their own party made some mistakes, and lots of mistakes were made here,” Ananich said.

Nessel is tapping Kym Worthy for the special prosecutor position, though the latter hasn’t yet accepted the offer. She’s now the prosecutor in a county that’s home to Detroit, and experts say is trusted locally after handling other complex, situations. That includes successfully processing a backlog of 11,000 untested rape kits discovered in a Detroit police station in 2010, and the successful prosecution of two white police officers who in 1992 beat to death a black man, Malice Green.

A Nessel spokesperson declined to comment, but Nessel said of Worthy in a press release: “There is no one whose opinion I value more when it comes to the complexity and importance of these cases.”

Nessel’s office hasn’t said who else could be charged should Worthy or another special prosecutor take over the case. Charges could also be dropped. During her campaign, Nessel criticized Schuette for paying Flood an hourly rate, which she said incentivized “the charging of unsustainable cases” and other measures to drag out the process.

She also questionedFlood’s impartiality. He was appointed to investigate Snyder and his administration, even though he’s a Snyder campaign donor.

On the civil side, Schuette has argued the state doesn’t have a constitutional obligation to provide clean water, and it has been difficult for those suing the government to get around the defense of sovereign immunity, which shields officials from legal responsibility. In one of the largest civil cases, a federal judge granted immunity to Snyder, high ranking environmental officials and an emergency financial manager.

That case consists of 12 class action suits consolidated into one large suit. Plaintiffs are asking for an independent monitor to ensure state health and environmental departments are complying with court orders. They’re also seeking the establishment of a fund for 100,000 people affected by the crisis.

The plaintiff’s co-counsel, Michael Pitt, says he’s more confident that victims will see some justice now that Nessel is in charge.

“She’s very dedicated to the goal of making sure the victims of state abuse and government abuse are taken care of in the proper way,” he said.

Still, the damage is so far-reaching that it’s going to be difficult to repair, said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University Law School professor and former federal prosecutor. “How much is the state willing to commit?” Henning asked.

“That’s the issue. Leaving all the legal niceties aside, how much is the state willing to pay?” </s> (6/13/2019) - Will the people who caused the Flint water crisis ever see justice?

That is the question Flint's elected state officials asked hours after the Michigan Attorney General's Office dismissed all criminal charges against eight people, deciding instead to start over with a new investigation.

RELATED: Flint water prosecutors dismiss all charges, plan to start over after new investigation

State Rep. Sheldon Neeley, a Democrat, is disappointed about the millions of taxpayer dollars spent on attorneys and years of court litigation wasted by dropping the charges.

“We’ve been told to wait, to be patient, that justice was coming, but where is that justice today?" he said. "My city is losing faith in our government, and that distrust was justified today when it once again failed them so miserably."

Neeley said the Flint community has suffered greatly due to the water crisis and he demands justice for the people who caused it.

"I’m not going to rest until everyone involved is held accountable and justice is truly served," he said. "I and the residents of Flint truly hope the Attorney General’s office will finally join us in this fight.”

State Sen. Jim Ananich, also a Democrat, feels much the same way.

"The people of Flint believe that they will never see justice, and sadly, so far they’ve been proven right," he said. "I hope and expect that this will not be the case for much longer, but until then, I will continue to fight for my city and hold people accountable.”

Thursday's action means the following defendants are free of all charges filed against them:

-- Former Michigan Department of Health and Human Service Director Nick Lyon. He is the highest ranking official to face charges.

-- Former Michigan Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells.

-- Former Flint emergency managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley.

-- Michigan Department of Environmental Quality official Patrick Cook.

-- Former Flint Public Works Director Howard Croft.

-- Michigan Department of Health and Human Services officials Robert Scott and Nancy Peeler.

They had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty. Lyon and Wells had their cases bound over to trial, although both were actively appealing those decisions.

All the charges against them were dismissed without prejudice, meaning prosecutors can file them again later -- and possibly add more counts. More people who weren't facing charges also could be implicated later.

Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who are leading the Flint water criminal prosecutions under Attorney General Dana Nessel, are starting a new investigation from scratch.

They decided the investigative work done under former Attorney General Bill Schuette gave them "immediate and grave concerns" -- so bad that they couldn't move forward without re-launching the investigation.

Schuette appointed attorney Todd Flood as a special prosecutor, who oversaw the entire investigation until Schuette left office on Jan. 1. Hammoud and Worthy claim that Flood didn't pursue all the evidence, leaving them a "flawed foundation" on which to continue prosecuting the cases.

In a series of tweets on Thursday afternoon, Schuette defended his team's work and the charges they brought.

"During my tenure as Attorney General, the department initiated three major investigations: Nassar, the Catholic Church and the Flint Water Crisis. All three were staffed and conducted with the highest level of professionalism and expertise," he wrote.

Schuette believes Flood's investigative did well at pursuing justice for everyone affected by the Flint water crisis.

"We had an experienced, aggressive and hard-driving team," he wrote. "Everything we did was for the people of Flint."

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Flint Mayor Karen Weaver support the decision to start over, as long as that's the right course to get justice.

"We've been waiting for justice for quite some time and justice is what we deserve," she said. "For them to say we need to do a full investigation and not just take what was handed to them is a good thing."

Congressman Dan Kildee, a Democrat from Flint, just wants to see the people who caused the water crisis held accountable -- no matter how prosecutors have to get there.

“The Attorney General’s office should aggressively continue its investigations and pursue criminal charges, supported by the facts and evidence, against any individual criminally responsible," he said.

Attorney Trachelle Young represents thousands of clients in a civil lawsuit filed against the city, state and former Gov. Rick Snyder, among others. She's encouraged by the news that the prosecution team is dismissing all pending criminal cases and expanding their investigation based on new evidence.

"The net is going to be cast wider and it's going to a much stronger net, and maybe they'll catch the big fish rather than the guppies," Young said.

The decision to drop all criminal charges won't affect the civil litigation currently under way, she said, "but it doesn't hurt our civil case either." </s> Prosecutors have said they are dismissing all criminal charges against eight people who were charged in the Flint, Mich., water crisis and are restarting their investigation into one of the worst manmade public health crises in U.S. history.

The announcement of the dropped charges comes as prosecutors say they will essentially start from scratch in reviewing the water crisis in order to expand the scope of the investigation.

Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud took over the case in January and said previous prosecutors had not taken advantage of all available evidence, according to The Associated Press.

"This week, we completed the transfer into our possession millions of documents and hundreds of new electronic devices, significantly expanding the scope of our investigation," Hammoud said in a statement.

That expanded search included seizing the cell phone and other records from former Gov. Rick Snyder (R).

Former state health director Nick Lyon was among those whose charges were dropped. Lyon was facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and accused of not quickly alerting the public of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak while Flint used water that was not properly treated.

The outbreak of Legionnaires’, a form of pneumonia, occurred while the city used lead-contaminated water that also contained other bacteria tied to the disease. Lyon was the top official charged in the probe.

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With the announcement of the dropped charges, Lyon's attorney, Chip Chamberlain, told the AP they "feel fantastic and vindicated," but acknowledged that Lyon and others could be charged again.

In April, a federal judge ruled residents of Flint, Mich., can sue the federal government over its response to the city's drinking water crisis.

Residents have long blamed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for waiting too long to intervene into state and local management of the city's water.

Flint's water troubles began in 2014 after switching its water source to the Flint River. The city no longer uses the river for its water supply. </s> FLINT, Mich. - Michigan’s attorney general in 2016 promised to investigate “without fear or favor” the scandal over Flint’s lead-tainted drinking water and pledged that state regulators would be locked up for fudging data and misleading the public.

Yet three years later, no one is behind bars. Instead, seven of 15 defendants have pleaded no contest to misdemeanors, some as minor as disrupting a public meeting. Their records eventually will be scrubbed clean.

That has angered some people in Flint who believe key players who could have prevented the lead disaster are getting off easy. Four of five people at the state Department of Environmental Quality who were on the front line of the crisis have struck deals. The remaining cases mostly center on a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease and early disastrous decisions to use water from the Flint River.

“I’m furious — absolutely furious,” said LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four who is credited with exposing the lead contamination. “It’s a slap in the face to every victim in the city of Flint.”

Walters, 40, said she was repeatedly brushed off by the Department of Environmental Quality, known as DEQ, even as she confronted officials with bottles of brown water. She testified in Congress after then-Gov. Rick Snyder in 2015 finally acknowledged the lead mess, and she later was honored with an international prize for grassroots environmental activism.

“Instead of people being held accountable, they’re getting a free pass,” Walters said. “The fact remains there wouldn’t have been a problem with the lead and the legionella if the water had been treated properly, if MDEQ would have done their job.”

Flint was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history. While waiting for a new pipeline to bring water from Lake Huron, the majority-black city of 100,000 pulled water from a river in 2014-15 without treating it to reduce corrosive effects on old pipes. Lead infected the distribution system in Flint, where 41 percent of residents are classified by the government as living in poverty.

Due to poor finances, Flint was being run by financial managers appointed by the governor. The uproar over water quality reached a peak by fall 2015 when a doctor reported high levels of lead in children, which can cause brain damage. The water no longer comes from the river and has significantly improved, but some residents are so distrusful that they continue to use bottled water.

Liane Shekter Smith, who was fired as head of Michigan’s drinking water office, was charged with misconduct in office and neglect of duty. Special prosecutor Todd Flood later put her on notice that he would pursue an involuntary manslaughter charge, arguing that she could have shut down the Flint water plant and reduced the threat of legionella bacteria, which causes Legionnaires’.

But charges were dropped on Jan. 7 in exchange for a no-contest plea to an obscure misdemeanor that will not result in any jail time: disturbance of a lawful meeting. She had declined to accept a report about water quality from Walters and others. Two other key agency employees, Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch, made deals on Dec. 26. All three will have their records erased if they cooperate with Flood.

Shekter Smith wanted “to put some closure on this matter,” attorney Brian Morley said of her plea agreement. “Criminal charges weren’t warranted.”

State Sen. Jim Ananich of Flint, who runs his water through a filter, said he’s listened to frustrated residents.

“At the beginning there was a feeling of good, someone is going to be held accountable. Now people don’t believe anyone is going to be held accountable,” he said.

The outcome so far is different than the dramatic scene in 2016 when Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican who was poised to run for governor, traveled to Flint to announce felony charges against Prysby, a DEQ engineer, and Busch, a DEQ regional supervisor.

“Mr. Busch and Mr. Prysby misled federal and local authorities, regulatory officials, and failed to provide safe and clean water to families of Flint,” Schuette declared at that time. “When we prove these allegations — and we will — Mr. Busch and Mr. Prysby will be facing five years in prison for this count alone.”

Andy Arena, a Flint water investigator and former head of the FBI in Detroit, believes the plea deals are appropriate.

“There are culpable folks out there that we need to get to,” he said. “This is how it works: You cut deals with certain people to move the case up the line. I believe these people have some information that could significantly assist in our ongoing investigation.”

Schuette, who lost the governor’s race and is out of public office, said: “I stand with Andy,” referring to Arena. Flood declined to comment on his strategy.

The new attorney general, Dana Nessel, has asked a Detroit-area prosecutor to review the remaining cases , including involuntary manslaughter charges against Nick Lyon, the former head of the Michigan health department who has been ordered to trial.

Lyon is accused of failing to alert the public in a timely manner about the Legionnaires’ outbreak, which has been linked to foul water and at least 12 deaths. Dr. Eden Wells, who was Michigan’s chief medical executive, also is facing an involuntary manslaughter trial, although both cases are tied up in appeals by aggressive defense teams.

Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley, who were state-appointed emergency managers when Flint was using river water, are also charged. They’re accused of being obsessed with saving money instead of protecting residents. All have pleaded not guilty.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announces that charges will be dropped against eight people in the Flint water crisis and investigations will be restarted in the scandal, which has plagued the city since 2014.