Flint Residents Treated as 'Expendable' By 6 State Workers Criminally Charged: UPDATE

Updated: FLINT, MI — Announcing charges against six state employees in two departments Friday, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette accused them of covering up reports of high lead levels in the Flint drinking water supply. Whether from “arrogance” or an attempt to support their own narrative that the drinking water was safe, they “viewed the people in Flint as expendable, as if they didn’t matter,” Schuette said.

“Some people failed to act, others minimized harm done and arrogantly chose to ignore data, some intentionally altered figures ... and covered up significant health risks,” Schuette said at a morning news conference.

Those charged include high-ranking officials at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality accused of keeping the Flint Water Treatment Plant running despite warnings that residents were being poisoned, and state health department employees who allegedly prevented information of the lead poisoning from reaching doctors and health officials, the attorney general said.

Todd Flood, the Royal Oak attorney appointed by Schuette’s office to serve as a special investigator, said each turn in the investigation has revealed discoveries “you can’t make up.”

“I don’t get it; I don’t understand the lack of compassion,” said Flood.

Authorities say the investigation may become the largest criminal investigation in the history of Michigan state government.

Flood declined to discuss whether Gov. Rick Snyder has been subpoenaed or interviewed, saying it would be unethical for him to say so, but he promised investigators “will not stop until every single person in this case who has committed a criminal act is brought to justice.”

The investigation will progress to the upper echelons of state government, investigator Andy Arena said, but “you don’t start at the top.”

“Like (with) organized crime, we are working our way up in the DEQ and expanding the scope of the investigation,” said Arena.

To the people of Flint, Arena said: “ We will get you answers, and we will get you justice.”

The new charges are against state Department of Health and Human Services workers Nancy Peeler, Corinne Miller and Robert Scott, and DEQ employees Liane Shekter-Smith, Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook were authorized Friday morning by Genesee County Judge Nathaniel C. Perry III.

The three DHHS employees were charged with misconduct in office, conspiring to commit misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty for allegedly covering up test results that showed high levels of lead in the bloodstream of Flint residents.

Together, the six face 18 criminal charges, 12 of them felonies and the others misdemeanors.

Shekter-Smith, the former chief of MDEQ’s Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance, is accused of ignoring citizen complaints about water quality and an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease after the city began getting drinking water from the Flint River in 2014. She not only failed to take corrective action and notify public health officials, she concealed evidence from health officials, Schuette said. Charges are:

• One count of misconduct in office, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
• One count of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Rosenthal, a water-quality analyst in Shekter-Smith’s division, is accused of ignoring warnings from the Flint Water Treatment Plant officials that the plant wasn’t ready for operations, and also from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that high levels of lead are usually due to particulate lead, signaling a corrosion problem. Rosenthal allegedly altered lead test results in documents. Charges are:

• One count of misconduct in office, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
• One count of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
• One count of tampering with evidence, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
• One count of conspiracy — tampering with evidence, a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Cook, a specialist for the DEQ’s Community Drinking Water Unit responsible for compliance with lead and copper monitoring, is accused of signing a permit in 2014 that was the last approval necessary for the use of the Flint Water Treatment Plant. Cook subsequently was aware of problems with the water in Flint but allegedly took no corrective action in his duty to ensure the provision of clean, safe drinking water in Flint. Cook allegedly misled the EPA regarding the necessity of using corrosion control in Flint after the switch when he allegedly forwarded information he knew to be false to the EPA in response to its inquiry, Schuette said. Charges are:

• One count of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by up to year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
• One count of misconduct in office, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
• One count of conspiracy, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Peeler and Scott are accused of burying a report epidemiologist Cristin Larder prepared last fall that showed high lead levels in the blood of Flint residents from July to September. Miller, the state’s top epidemiologist, is accused of ordering a DHHS employee to take no action on the report and disregard Larder’s findings.

The investigation also revealed that on day the first blood lead level report was created, on July 28, 2015, there was communication between Shekter-Smith and the health department, Schuette said. This was the same time that DEQ defendants allegedly were manipulating lead water results to conceal unsafe lead levels.

Despite knowledge to the contrary, the investigation showed that Shekter-Smith allegedly told health department officials that there were no lead issues with Flint’s drinking water.

Each of the MHHS employees is charged with:

• One count of misconduct in office, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
• One count of conspiracy, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
• One count of willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000.

A total of nine people have now been criminally charged in the lead contamination crisis. Schuette's team announced the first wave of charges in the investigation last spring when two mid-level Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and a Flint water administrator were accused of manipulating water test results, tampering with evidence and lying to federal and county officials about the safety of Flint’s water.

Mike Glasgow, the city employee, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor, and more serious charges were dismissed in exchange for his cooperation with investigators. The two DEQ employees, Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby, are awaiting their preliminary examinations on felony and misdemeanor charges.

Schuette’s office filed a civil lawsuit against two private companies his office alleges not only failed to protect Flint residents from the contaminated water but also “made a bad situation worse.”

• Criminal Charges in Flint Water Crisis 'First Wave'

The lawsuit filed in Genesee County Circuit Court names Veolia North America and Lockwood Andrews & Newnam (LAN), as well as LAN’s Nebraska-based parent company, Leo A. Daly Co.

They “botched the job,” Schuette said.

Flint’s drinking water supply became contaminated with lead when the city began drawing water from the Flint River in 2014 while under the control of a state-appointed emergency management. The water was more corrosive than the water from Lake Huron, the previous source, and lead leached from the aging pipes.