Flint water crisis: 5 officials now face manslaughter charges

[Hail Satan]

[url=http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2017/06/14/flint-water-crisis-manslaughter-charges/396075001/]Source[/url]
[QUOTE]Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today filed new, more serious charges in the Flint Water Crisis investigation, but also said the case is shifting to a new phase.

"We will turn to the prosecution of this investigation," Schuette said at a news conference in Flint this morning. "We are confident that the charges that we have filed will be upheld in the courts."

Schuette's statement came after he announced involuntary manslaughter charges against Nick Lyon, director of the Michigan Department of Health, as well as Darnell Earley, Flint's former emergency manager; Howard Croft, the city's former director of public works; Liane Shekter-Smith, the state's former top drinking water official and water supervisor Stephen Busch of the Department of Environmental Quality.

Those charges, felonies punishable by up to 15 years in prison, stem from the death of 85-year-old Robert Skidmore, who December 2015 death is tied to the Legionnaire's Disease outbreak in Flint.

State officials, they said, knew about the outbreak but refused to sound a public alarm that could have saved lives. At least 12 people died from complications related to the outbreak.

In all, 15 people have been charged with 51 counts. Two have plead no contest to lesser charges and agreed to help with the investigation, but none of the cases have gone to court yet.[/QUOTE]

[MR-X]

Good. They need to be held accountable and what they did was unacceptable.

[Dr. Kyuros]

Wouldn't be surprised at all if Snyder's next on the line.

[eviltediz]

They should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It's disgustingly criminal what they did.

[Beetle179]

It's good that some action is being taken but I mean Flint is still not much better off than it was a few years ago when this all started. This is still an ongoing crisis and after the initial public outrage it all just kind of... continued when people lost interest.

e: It's [I]better[/I] but still a pretty dire situation for residents.

[Snap]

I recently found out that my city hired ex Finance director of Flint Mi, from 92 to 99. Some say the start of the problem was during this time, under the Stanley administration which put the city in debt of $30m and the appointment of Flint’s Emergency Manager in 2002.

We recently voted to acquire our cities water company, and he is the only person on the town staff that has water experience. So hopefully nothing bad comes from this.

But good that people are finally getting charged with something in that city.