FLINT — On Thursday, former Governor Rick Snyder pled “not guilty” to two misdemeanor charges that carry up to a $1,000 fine each or up to one year in prison for each, for his role in the Flint water crisis.

In 2014, the switching of Flint’s water source without treatment led to dangerous contamination of its water supply, causing 12 deaths, long term health effects for Flint’s residents and two outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease. Snyder failed to order a change in the city’s water source for 17 months, even as residents protested and demanded action.

Switching of Flint’s water supply was supposed to be temporary while a new supply line to Lake Huron was completed. When the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality failed to treat corrosive water from the new supply, it ate into the city’s aging iron and lead water pipes and leached those elements into the drinking water.

The charges are part of several indictments announced by Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Thursday, including manslaughter charges for two officials. Nine officials, including Snyder, have been indicted on a total of 42 counts related to a series of alleged actions and inactions related to the Flint water crisis.

File photo

Here’s a full list of charges:

• Jarrod Agen – former director of communications and former chief of staff, Executive Office of Gov. Snyder
  • One count of perjury – a 15-year felony
• Gerald Ambrose – former Flint emergency manager
  • Four counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
• Richard Baird – former transformation manager and senior adviser, Executive Office of Gov. Snyder
  • One count of perjury – a 15-year felony
  • One count of official misconduct in office – a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
  • One count of obstruction of justice – a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
  • One count of extortion – a 20-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
• Howard Croft – former director of the Flint Department of Public Works
  • Two counts of willful neglect of duty – each a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
• Darnell Earley – Former Flint emergency manager
  • Three counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
• Nicolas Lyon – former director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
  • Nine counts of involuntary manslaughter – each a 15-year felony and/or $7,500 fine
  • One count of willful neglect of duty – a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
• Nancy Peeler – early childhood health section manager at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
  • Two counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
  • One count of willful neglect of duty – a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
• Richard Snyder – former governor of Michigan
  • Two counts of willful neglect of duty – each a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine
• Eden Wells – former chief medical executive at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
  • Nine counts of involuntary manslaughter – each a 15-year felony and/or $7,500 fine
  • Two counts of misconduct in office – each a five-year felony and/or $10,000 fine
  • One count of willful neglect of duty – a one-year misdemeanor and/or $1,000 fine

(First row, from top left to right): Rick Snyder, Nick Lyon, Darnell Earley. (Second row): Richard Baird, Gerald Ambrose, Nancy Ann Peeler. (Third row): Howard Croft, Eden Wells, Jarrod Agen. Photo courtesy: WDIV

The indictments come out of a “one-man” grand jury investigation, with a judge listening to and evaluating the evidence presented in an overhauled investigation of the crisis led by Hammoud and Worthy, who were picked by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. That grand jury evidence cannot be made public at this time, but the cases can now be tried in individual assigned courts.

Snyder’s attorney Brian Lennon has said the charges were “wholly without merit” and that Snyder’s lawyers were confident he would be “fully exonerated if this flimsy case goes to trial.”

Snyder was ordered not leave the state without the court’s permission by Genesee District Judge Christopher Odette during his arraignment on Thursday. 

“I’m not going to have him surrender his passport on a misdemeanor charge,” Odette said.

Snyder makes a remote court appearance from a Genesee County jail booth, Thursday, Jan. 14. Screengrab.

Flint’s water crisis began with the Snyder placing the city under emergency management, a strategy used to correct the financial ship in cities decimated by automotive capital like Flint and Detroit. Emergency managers are not democratically elected by voters and have immense and unaccountable legal power to make decisions, such as switching the city’s water source.

Those two emergency mangers, Ambrose and Earley, are now facing multiple five-year felonies.

Fresh investigation

By early 2016, Snyder declared a state of emergency in Genesee County and an investigation was launched by a private law firm, appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Schuette, that was then designated as the former Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

Upon taking office in 2019, Nessel made the decision to put a conflict wall in place to ensure the criminal investigation and civil litigation following the Flint Water Crisis were conducted by separate teams. Nessel thus led the civil litigation team, while Hammoud and Worthy were tapped to conduct the criminal investigation, replacing the OSC completely.

Citing grave concerns about the investigative approach and legal theories embraced by the former OSC, particularly regarding the pursuit of evidence, Hammoud and Worthy announced in June 2019 the dismissal without prejudice (meaning they could be filed later) of all pending criminal charges previously brought by the OSC.

Hammoud and Worthy then began a widespread investigation, combing through millions of documents and several hundred electronic devices, and executed dozens of search warrants to bring fresh charges regarding the case.

Worthy called it “one of the largest criminal investigations currently underway in the world” on Thursday.

“This case has nothing to do with partisanship,” Worthy said in a statement. “It has to do with human decency, resurrecting the complete abandonment of the people of Flint and finally, finally, holding people accountable for the unspeakable alleged atrocities that harmed this city for years.”

Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy address frustrated residents at a UAW hall in Flint, 2019. – Photo by Jake May

When an entire city is victimized by the negligence and indifference of those in power, it deserves an uncompromising investigation that holds to account anyone who is criminally culpable — Fadwa Hammoud

Worthy said in a press conference on Thursday that the investigation that led to the latest round of charges also relied on a panel of infectious disease experts who reviewed the deaths in Flint and determined the causes of death.

“When an entire city is victimized by the negligence and indifference of those in power, it deserves an uncompromising investigation that holds to account anyone who is criminally culpable,” said Hammoud, a Dearborn native. “That is what all residents in this state are entitled to, regardless of their ZIP code. And that is what this prosecution team did. Our approach was simple — where we believed the evidence would prove a criminal charge, we sought and obtained indictments for those crimes.”

Under Nessel, the state reached a $600 million settlement with victims of the Flint water crisis last year, and a court-monitored compensation fund was established.