Michigan Supreme Court rejects appeal against Snyder, signaling end for Flint water cases

The Michigan Supreme Court issued an order Tuesday indicating it will not hear the state's appeal against former Gov. Rick Snyder, the final attempt by state prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against the officials involved in the 2014 Flint water crisis.

The order responds to, and shuts down, an appeal filed earlier this year by the state's Flint Water Prosecution Team to re-open Snyder's case. Criminal charges against Snyder and other former state officials were dismissed after the Michigan Supreme Court last year ruled a judge improperly acted as a "one-man grand jury" to indict the officials. After the court ruled prosecutors erred procedurally, cases were remanded to lower courts for dismissal. Attempts by the state to revive the cases were unsuccessful at every level.

State prosecutors conceded the order issued by Tuesday by the court signals the end of criminal prosecutions stemming from the Flint water crisis. The crisis started in 2014 when the city switched water sources and lead, a neurotoxin particularly dangerous to children, leached into the city's water supply. As the city struggled with water quality, it also saw an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease and deaths.

Snyder was governor at the time of the water crisis. He faced two counts of willful neglect of duty by a public official, a misdemeanor.

State prosecutors, lead by Deputy Attorney General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, had sought charges against nine ex-officials for their roles in the crisis — Snyder, former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, former Michigan Chief Medical Executive Dr. Eden Wells, former MDHHS early childhood health section manager Nancy Peeler, former Flint Department of Public Works official Howard Croft former Snyder aides Richard Baird and Jarrod Agen, and former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose.

In September, Michigan Supreme Court justices declined to hear appeals in seven of the other officials' cases. Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement has not participated in the cases, citing her former occupation as Snyder's chief legal counsel.

“Today, our Supreme Court has put the final nail in the coffin of the Flint Water Prosecutions,” prosecutors said in a joint statement on Tuesday. “The Court decided that a process which has stood in place for over a century, one whose legitimacy the Court upheld repeatedly, was simply not ‘good enough’ to hold those responsible for the Flint Water Crisis accountable for their actions. Our disappointment in the Michigan Supreme Court is exceeded only by our sorrow for the people of Flint.”

The prosecution team said it aims to release a full report on its efforts to bring the criminal charges in the Flint water crisis cases next year.

State law currently prohibits the evidence presented to Judge David Newblatt, who served as the one-man grand jury and indicted the former officials, from being made public. In a news release, prosecutors said they plan on working with state lawmakers to change this law.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel had appointed Hammoud and Worthy to lead the state's prosecution in the Flint Water Crisis cases after taking in office in 2019. Since the attorney general represented the state in civil litigation, Nessel implemented a "conflict wall" that kept her involvement away from the criminal prosecution stemming from the crisis.

After taking on the cases, state prosecutors tossed out previous charges brought forward by Nessel's predecessor, Attorney General Bill Schuette, and relaunched an expanded probe. At the time, Nessel said in a statement to Flint residents, "justice delayed is not always justice denied.”

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @arpanlobo.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Supreme Court rejects appeal in Snyder's Flint water case