Involuntary Manslaughter Charges Against 5 In Flint Water Crisis Investigation

(Updated) FLINT, MI — Michigan state health department director Nick Lyon and four others have been charged with involuntary manslaughter as the Flint drinking water lead crisis investigation shifts to the deaths of 12 people who died of Legionnaire’s disease after Flint began getting its water from the Flint River in 2014. Attorney General Bill Schuette and other members of his investigative announced the charges Wednesday at a news conference in Flint.

Schuette said the others charged with involuntary manslaughter for their failure to notify the public of a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak are former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley, former Flint Water Department manager Howard Croft, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Drinking Water Chief Liane Shekter-Smith and Water Supervisor Stephen Busch.

Involuntary manslaughter is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $7,500 fine. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Flint Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Lyon also faces a felony misconduct in office charge, and Dr. Eden Wells, the chief medical executive at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer, Schuette said.

All defendants except Wells are charged in the death of Robert Skidmore, 85, of Mount Morris, Michigan, who died of Legionnaire’s disease after many others had been diagnosed, yet no public outbreak notice had been posted, Schuette said. Without such a notice, the disease spread through Flint’s drinking water system.

Investigators said Lyon, 49, of Marshall, received notice of the deadly Legionnaire’s disease outbreak in Genesee County a year before he informed the public of risks. The manslaughter charge is filed in the death of Robert Skidmore, on Dec. 13, 2015. Additionally, Lyon helped cover up the source of the Genesee County Legionnaire’s disease outbreak by trying to stop an independent researcher from looking into its cause, Schuette said.

During the course of the investigation, Wells attempted to withhold funding for programs designed to help victims of the water crisis, and then lied to an investigator about material facts related to the investigation, Schuette said. Obstruction of justice is a five-year felony carrying a maximum fine of $10,000, and lying to a police officer is a high court misdemeanor punishable by two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Two of the others charged with involuntary manslaughter had the authority to shut down the Flint Water Treatment Plant when they received notice that it was not producing safe water, investigators said.

Busch could have shut it down as the MDEQ District 8 water supervisor, but failed to act in January 2015 when he was notified of the Legionnaire’s disease outbreak and continued to tell Flint residents their water was safe to drink. He previously had been charged with misconduct in office, tampering with evidence, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, and two misdemeanor counts for both a treatment and monitoring violation of the Michigan Safe Water Drinking Act.

As chief of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance at MDEQ, Shekter-Smith also had the authority to close the treatment plant for failure to produce safe water, Schuette said. She previously was charged with felony misconduct in office and misdemeanor willful neglect of duty charges.

Croft, who previously was charged with felony false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses, could have ordered changes to treatment plant processes to ensure water was properly disinfected or to switch back to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which gets its water from Lake Huron. Instead, Schuette said, Croft pressured former treatment plant operator Mike Glasgow to begin using the plant without appropriate treatments, which contributed to the legionella outbreak in the spring of 2015.

Earley had previously been charged with felony false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses and misconduct in office, as well as a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duties.

As the state-appointed emergency manager for Flint, Earley contributed to Skidmore’s death by sticking with the Flint River as a source for the city’s drinking water even after it became apparent that it wasn’t safe and the city should switch back to Lake Huron, Schuette said.

Gov. Rick Snyder defended Lyon and Wells, saying the charges against them do not represent “justice for Flint.”

In a statement, he said:

“Nick Lyon has been a strong leader at the Department of Health and Human Services for the past several years and remains completely committed to Flint's recovery. Director Lyon and Dr. Eden Wells, like every other person who has been charged with a crime by Bill Schuette, are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“Some state employees were charged over a year ago and have been suspended from work since that time. They still have not had their day in court. That is not justice for Flint nor for those who have been charged. Director Lyon and Dr. Wells have been and continue to be instrumental in Flint's recovery. They have my full faith and confidence, and will remain on duty at DHHS.”

(Previously reported on Patch): More charges may be announced Wednesday in an investigation of the Flint water crisis, which has already reached the upper echelons of state government. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Tuesday that he will give an update into the investigation at 11 a.m. at the Riverfront Banquet Center in Flint.

Schuette will be joined by Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton, Special Counsel Todd Flood and Lead Investigator Andy Arena.

So far, 13 people have been charged in the ongoing investigation into Flint’s drinking water lead-contamination investigation. The most recent were two former emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder and two former Flint city employees who were charged in December 2016 with felony conspiracy charges.

Schuette said at the time that the four conspired to borrow about $85 million to clean up a so-called calamity — one of the few instances in which governments under emergency management may borrow money — at a lime-sludge lagoon that Schuette said had already been largely remediated. Instead, the money was used to develop the Karegnondi Water Authority, which ended the city’s longtime relationship with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which gets its water from Lake Huron.

The emergency managers are the highest-level officials charged so far in the investigation. Asked by a reporter in December if Snyder himself might be charged, Schuette didn't answer directly, but said: “It’s serious. We’re going up and we’re going broad. We read the emails and put two and two together. If there’s sufficient evidence, we charge. Nobody’s on the table; nobody’s off the table.”

Snyder has previously said that he is not worried about charges.

The former emergency managers’ “fixation” with costs and balance sheets had been at the expense of “public health and safety” and had “cost lives,” Schuette said in December.

The focus of the investigation has been on the lead contamination, and possible links with Flint-area deaths from Legionnaires’ disease are also being explored. Twelve people in the Flint and Genesee county areas have died from Legionnaires’ disease, according to state records.

Before the last round of charges, eight state workers and one city of Flint employee had previously been charged in the investigation, which was launched in January 2016 and so far has revealed that Flint is a “casualty of arrogance, disdain and failure of management, an absence of accountability, a shirking of responsibility,” Schuette has said.

The Flint drinking water lead crisis began when the city started getting its water from the Flint River in 2014. Thousands of residents of the city of 100,000 were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead in what has been called one of the worst man-made public health catastrophes in modern times. Lead is especially dangerous for young children and can cause irreversible brain damage, lower IQs, anti-social behavior and a host of other problems.

The switch was intended to save money, but the water’s corrosive properties caused lead in the city’s aging pipes to leach and expose thousands to dangerously high levels of lead, which can cause irreversible brain damage in children.

Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images News/Getty Images