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Health Chief and Five Others Charged with Manslaughter in Flint, Michigan
Five people, including the head of Michigan’s health department, were charged Wednesday with involuntary manslaughter in an investigation of Flint’s lead-contaminated water, all blamed in the death of an 85-year-old man who had Legionnaires’ disease.
Flint began using water from the Flint River while under state emergency management, but did not treat it to reduce corrosion. Toxic lead from old plumbing leached into the water system, causing elevated levels in children and leaving residents to drink and bathe with bottled or filtered water. Some experts also have linked the water to Legionnaires’ disease, a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria that thrive in warm water and infect the lungs. People can get sick if they inhale mist or vapor, typically from cooling systems. There were nearly 100 cases in the Flint area, including 12 deaths, in 2014 and 2015.
“The health crisis in Flint has created a trust crisis for Michigan government, exposing a serious lack of confidence in leaders who accept responsibility and solve problems,” said state Attorney General Bill Schuette...
Nick Lyon is the highest-ranking member of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration to be snagged in a criminal investigation of how the city’s water system became poisoned after officials tapped the Flint River in 2014. Lyon, 48, the director of the Health and Human Services Department, is accused of failing to alert the majority-black population about an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15. Lyon also is charged with misconduct in office for allegedly obstructing university researchers who are studying if the surge in cases was linked to the Flint River.
The others charged ... are: Darnell Earley, who was Flint’s emergency manager when the city used the river; Howard Croft, who ran Flint’s public works department; Liane Shekter Smith; and Stephen Busch. Shekter Smith and Busch were state environmental regulators.
Prosecutors also brought charges Wednesday against a sixth person — the state’s chief medical officer, Dr. Eden Wells, 54, who is accused of obstruction of justice and lying to an investigator.
Convincing a jury that the officials’ failure to disclose the risk of Legionnaires’ disease caused a death would be difficult, Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said. “This case is going to become a battle of the experts, something we don’t usually see in a homicide or manslaughter prosecution,” Henning said. “This is a tough case for the attorney general. They can get a conviction but it’s not going to be easy.”