Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said a report released Tuesday on the lead in water crisis in Flint is the final step her office can take toward accountability, years after a state Supreme Court ruling shut down criminal cases against a former governor and eight other people.
Flint residents suffered through years of health concerns after lead from old pipes leached into the city’s drinking water after officials began drawing water from the Flint River to save money in 2014. Most of the 101-page report provides a history of the crisis, local and state officials' slow response, and the attempt to bring felony and misdemeanor charges against nine people, including former Republican Governor Rick Snyder.
Nessel, a Democrat in her final term, said the report is meant to be a thorough public account of the criminal investigation.
“I hope this offering revealing the inner workings of our dedicated investigators and prosecutors who helmed this yearslong effort and the facts and evidence which guided them may tell one part of the story of the Flint water crisis, and put the truth in the hands of the people of Flint who deserve it the most,” Nessel said.
After taking office in 2019, Nessel fired a special prosecutor who had brought criminal charges and assembled a new team of attorneys to determine whether crimes were committed. That team ultimately brought charges against Snyder and other key officials, presenting their evidence to a judge who acted as a one-person grand jury.
After a year of proceedings, David Newblatt, the judge who served as that one-person grand jury, indicted nine people with 42 criminal charges related to decisions that ultimately caused lead to contaminate Flint’s water supply. The charges included willful neglect by then Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, misconduct in office by the emergency manager he appointed to oversee the city, as well as charges for state and local employees.
In 2022, the state’s Supreme Court threw out those charges, saying the judge had no power to issue indictments under the grand jury law.
The state stopped pursuing criminal legal action following that decision. The prosecution team tapped by the attorney’s general office issued an unsigned statement at the time, which called the decision from the state’s highest court a “tragic ending” to its efforts.
Nessel was not involved in the criminal cases, deciding instead to focus on settling lawsuits against the state and wall herself off from the criminal investigation. But on Tuesday she defended the prosecutors' decision to seek the charges directly from a judge, calling it “the smartest possible move” at the time. She also questioned the political implications of the ruling, noting three of the justices who joined the unanimous ruling were appointed by Snyder.
“I think it’s impossible to separate those things,” Nessel said.
The report estimated that the prosecutorial team involved in the effort to criminally charge state and local leaders for their part in the water crisis cost taxpayers about $7.6 million, not including those who contributed through their roles in the attorney general’s office. Further litigation in the case could’ve totaled an additional $10 million, according to the report.
“The Flint Water Crisis was a man-made tragedy of epic proportion,” Nessel wrote in a forward to the report. “My heart breaks for this loss and suffering,” she added, as well as the fact that “to a large extent, justice has evaded the people of Flint” and they will not get their day in criminal court to see officials be held accountable for the water crisis.
The Associated Press sent an email Tuesday seeking comment from Snyder.
Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley said in a statement that he’s disappointed that “more than a decade after the Flint Water Crisis began, those responsible for the decisions that caused and exacerbated the crisis have not been held accountable through the criminal justice system.”
“As a lifelong Flint resident, husband, father, neighbor and Mayor, it is deeply disappointing that there will be no criminal trial and no verdict holding those directly responsible accountable for their actions,” Neeley said. “The people of Flint deserved accountability. They deserved answers. And they deserved to see those responsible answer for the decisions that put their health, their families at risk.”
Prosecutors said in 2023 that a report would come out the following year summarizing their investigation. Nessel said it took more time to redact information from grand jury proceedings that must remain secret and summarize millions of other documents.
Cash-strapped Flint was under state financial control when it stopped getting its water from Detroit and began drawing it from the Flint River while waiting to connect to a new regional system. The move was made to save money. But the water was improperly treated, and lead leached from old pipes into the water.
As state health officials said the water was safe, doctors started reporting high levels of lead in the blood of Flint children.
Snyder acknowledged the lead problem in September 2015 leading the state to provide water filters and testing of water in Flint schools. In early 2016, he declared a state of emergency in Flint. Congress eventually approved a bill authorizing water projects nationwide. About $170 million went to Flint to address lead in the drinking water.
In 2021, a judge approved a $626 million settlement for Flint residents and others who were exposed to lead-contaminated water. The Flint water crisis prompted other communities across the state and in other states to seek solutions to how drinking water was delivered to homes and businesses.
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Associated Press writer Corey Williams contributed from Detroit. Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
