UPDATED x2: Snyder administration officials facing manslaughter charges over #FlintWaterCrisis but Snyder himself can’t be sued
Big news out of Flint this morning. Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed charges against two current and two former Snyder administration officials and one former Flint official. Michigan Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon is being charged with felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office. Four others, including former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, are also facing manslaughter charges. In addition, Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells has been charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer.
You may think this has to do with lead in Flint’s drinking water. However, these charges are over the officials’ handling of the Legionnaire’s Disease outbreak in Flint in 2014 and 2015:
Both are charged in connection with the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the Flint area that led to 12 deaths after the city’s water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014. […]Lyon, 49, of Marshall is accused of causing the death of Robert Skidmore on Dec. 15, 2015 by failing to alert the public about a foreseeable outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. It’s a 15-year felony.“Defendant Lyon was aware of Genesee County’s Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at least by Jan. 28, 2015 and did not notify the public until a year later,” the charging documents allege.Lyon “exhibited gross negligence when he failed to alert the public about the deadly outbreak and by taking steps to suppress information illustrating obvious and apparent harms that were likely to result in serious injury.”On the misconduct in office charge, a five-year felony, Lyon is accused of instructing anUPDATED x2: Snyder administration officials facing manslaughter charges over #FlintWaterCrisis but Snyder himself can’t be sued | Eclectablog:
