Michigan Supreme Court Dismisses Charges Against Officials Implicated in the Flint Water Crisis

Photo by Carlos Osorio via Courthouse News Service

After 7 years of legal proceedings, a Michigan appellate court ruling has led prosecutors to dismiss charges against 9 former city and state officials allegedly responsible for the Flint water crisis. The defendants, including former Governor Rick Snyder, were facing charges ranging from misconduct in office to involuntary manslaughter for their role in the creation and cover-up of the water crisis. However, the indictments were passed by a one-man grand jury, which a Michigan Supreme Court ruling declared invalid for passing indictments last year. As a result, the prosecution has declined to move forward with the case.

In 2013, state-appointed emergency leadership made the decision to transition Flint’s water system to siphon water from the Flint River in order to cut costs to the impoverished city despite allegedly knowing that the city’s water treatment system could not adequately handle the additional contamination. As a result, the Flint River’s highly corrosive water eroded the city’s lead pipes and leached lead into the water supply, affecting thousands.

High levels of lead in the blood can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular disease and reproductive problems in adults. Children, however, are at a much greater risk: lead exposure in children can lead to learning disabilities, behavior problems, and mental delays. This is exactly what happened to 1 in 4 of Flint’s children. A deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak which killed 12 and sickened 90 was also linked to inadequate water treatment by the city. 

Flint’s drinking water nightmare didn’t end until 5 long years after the switch, forcing the population to rely on bottled water for drinking, bathing, and cooking. The water still isn’t completely lead-free, either, and although all water in the United States contains some level of lead, there is no “safe” dosage. Some still drink only bottled water, and the crisis has left lasting marks on Flint residents’ trust in government.

The legal process against 9 of the officials involved in exacerbating the crisis has spanned 7 years between two rounds of charges. When Attorney General Dana Nassel, a Democrat, replaced her Republican predecessor in 2019, she dismissed the pre-existing charges from 2016 and restarted the case. Rather than requiring a joint decision by a number of jurors, a one-man grand jury expedites the process by presenting the evidence to a judge who can then unilaterally pass a bill of indictment. 

Now, the push to bring justice to officials who allegedly failed to do their due diligence to prevent or mitigate the crisis, or even actively hid vital information from the people of Flint, has hit another setback. In a unanimous decision in 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court found that a one-man grand jury cannot be used to criminally indict a defendant. Now, the charges cannot proceed for the time being.

In its decision, the court argued that the utilization of a one-person grand jury denies defendants the right to a preliminary examination in which evidence could be cross-examined before a grand jury to determine whether or not an indictment would be appropriate. This decision comes as a victory to the defendants and their allies. Defendant and former Governor Rick Snyder, for example, described the charges as “political persecution.”

The Peeler decision overturned a century of precedent in the state regarding the use of one-man grand juries in Michigan. The state has long used one-man grand juries to pass indictments in the past, amounting to thousands of prosecutions and convictions. While the sentiment behind the ruling makes sense in that it gives defendants a better chance to present evidence that could prevent a conviction, the timing certainly appears a bit suspect.

Many Flint residents feel that this is just another in a series of insults to their  community in the wake of the water crisis. Water activists in Flint have been fighting for justice for eight years now and have yet to see justice served.

This might not be the end of the fight to hold officials accountable for the Flint water crisis. Fadwa Hammoud, the state solicitor general who helped lead the prosecutions, gave a statement just hours after the ruling: “These cases are not over,” she said, and “commentary to the contrary is presumptive and rash.”