Flint water: Former Michigan governor is accused of a crisis that killed 12 people

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The Flint Water prosecution team is scheduled to release its findings at a press conference Thursday morning after former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and former Flint Public Works director Howard Croft were indicted every Wednesday.

According to court documents, they are each facing two instances of willful dereliction of duty as part of an investigation into the crisis. The charges are felonies punishable by up to one year in prison or a fine of up to $ 1,000, according to the state criminal code.

CNN has contacted an attorney for Snyder and an attorney for Croft to comment on the allegations.

Flint has been exposed to extremely high levels of lead since 2014 when city and state officials switched the city’s water supply from the Detroit Water System to the polluted Flint River in an effort to cut costs.

The switchover would be temporary while a new supply line to Lake Huron was being completed. When the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality didn’t treat the corrosive water, it ate in the city’s iron and lead pipes and leached into the drinking water.

The contaminated water led to two outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, a serious form of pneumonia caused by bacteria.

More than a dozen lawsuits and a $ 600 million settlement

Snyder, who served from 2010 to 2018, apologized in 2016 for the state’s role in the crisis.
Court documents for Snyder, a Republican, show the violation date as April 25, 2014, the same day Flint switched his water source.

Brian Lennon, an attorney for Snyder, said earlier Wednesday that his client was scapegoated by a politically-driven special counsel. Lennon called reports that his client would be charged “without merit” and as part of a “political escapade”.

Flint Water Crisis Fast Facts

A Croft attorney told The Detroit News that his client was informed on Monday that he would be charged.

The Michigan Attorney General’s office had no comment on the charges on Wednesday night.

Residents of Flint complained about the poor quality of their water when the Environmental Protection Agency tested the water penetration into homes in 2015, finding dangerous levels of lead that could cause serious health problems.

More than a dozen lawsuits, including several class-action lawsuits, were brought against the state, the city of Flint and some state and municipal officials involved in the decision to switch the source of the drinking water and those responsible for monitoring water quality.

Last year, the state reached a $ 600 million settlement with victims and a court-controlled compensation fund was established.

The Legionnaires’ disease outbreak led to criminal charges against government officials in 2017, including Nick Lyon, then director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges in 2019 and said the investigation would start all over, citing concerns about how the special counsel had conducted his investigation.

CNN’s Taylor Romine and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.

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