{"id":1531631,"date":"2022-06-28T18:19:05","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T22:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1531631"},"modified":"2022-06-28T18:19:20","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T22:19:20","slug":"top-michigan-court-ruled-former-republican-governor-and-other-public-officials-in-flint-water-crisis-wrongfully-indicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-michigan-court-ruled-former-republican-governor-and-other-public-officials-in-flint-water-crisis-wrongfully-indicted\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Michigan Court Ruled Former Republican Governor And Other Public Officials In Flint Water Crisis Wrongfully Indicted"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-michigan-court-ruled-former-republican-governor-and-other-public-officials-in-flint-water-crisis-wrongfully-indicted%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1531631&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Michigan Supreme Court threw out charges on Tuesday against former Governor Rick Snyder and eight public officials involved in the 2014 Flint Water crisis, saying a one-man jury wrongly indicted them.<\/p>\n<p>Attorney General Dana Nessel, who took office in 2019, authorized using a one-man grand jury rather than charging officials in open court. That one man \u2014 Democrat-appointed Judge David Newblatt \u2014 issued the indictments after considering the evidence behind closed doors.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Justice Bridget McCormack called the one-man jury a \u201cStar Chamber comeback,\u201d referencing 17th-century English court proceedings held in secret and abused by high-ranking officials.<\/p>\n<p>However, Michigan\u2019s highest court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/580161798\/MSC-Flint\">ruled<\/a> unanimously against the wrongful charges, noting state laws \u201cauthorize a judge to investigate, subpoena witnesses, and issue arrest warrants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they do not authorize the judge to issue indictments,\u201d McCormack wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo this day, the defendants do not know what evidence the prosecution presented to convince the grand jury (i.e., juror) to charge them,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Richard Bernstein concurred, writing separately that Nessel\u2019s office \u201cinvoked obscure statutes, specifically to deprive defendants of their statutory right to a preliminary examination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When an attorney general authorizes a one-man grand jury, state law grants the right to a preliminary examination that disqualifies the judge who conducted the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>A few of the defendant\u2019s lawyers challenged the indictments, which also applied to Snyder and others, asking for a preliminary examination. However, officials denied the motion, \u201cholding that indicted person have no right to a preliminary examination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press reported that \u201cthe attorney general\u2019s office had no immediate comment on the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Snyder\u2019s legal team described the court\u2019s opinion to The Associated Press as \u201cunequivocal and scathing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese prosecutions of Governor Snyder and the other defendants were never about seeking justice for the citizens of Flint,\u201d Snyder\u2019s lawyers told The Associated Press. \u201cRather, Attorney General Nessel and her political appointee Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud staged a self-interested, vindictive, wasteful and politically motivated prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/health-crime-michigan-indictments-rick-snyder-609f461af3bb2d7f10a40c5d663620eb\">reported<\/a> Snyder acknowledged his administration\u2019s failure in Flint by calling it a crisis born from \u201ca breakdown in state government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before the state\u2019s highest court threw out charges against Snyder, he faced two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty.<\/p>\n<p>Former Health and Human Services director Nick Lyon and Michigan\u2019s former chief medical executive, Dr. Eden Wells, were charged with involuntary manslaughter for nine deaths.<\/p>\n<p>Six others were also indicted on various charges: Snyder\u2019s longtime fixer, Rich Baird; former senior aide Jarrod Agen; former Flint managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley; former Flint public works chief Howard Croft; and Nancy Peeler, a state health department manager, The Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Democrat-majority Michigan Supreme Court has slapped down Dana Nessel\u2019s abuse of power and ruled her political witch hunt illegal,\u201d Tori Sachs, executive director of Michigan Freedom Fund, a non-profit conservative advocacy group, said in a statement. \u201cDana Nessel\u2019s legal ineptitude cost Michigan taxpayers millions of dollars while she weaponized the judicial system to attack her political opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sachs said before Michigan\u2019s Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, \u201c[it] was the only state in the nation using one-person grand juries to target citizens with criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/01\/25\/michigan-judge-charging-republicans-in-flint-water-crisis-history-donating-democrats\/\">report<\/a> by The Daily Caller reveals the judge who served as a one-person grand juror previously donated to Democrat politicians.<\/p>\n<p>The Flint Water crisis began in 2014 when health officials changed the city\u2019s drinking water supply from Detroit\u2019s system to the Flint River to save money. But poor corrosion control treatments and testing of the supply resulted in fatal and other serious health issues for Flint residents. As a result, lead and other contaminants permeated the water, which infected 91 people and killed 12 others in the Flint area.<\/p>\n<p>A judge approved a $600-million settlement in 2021 for the victims of the Flint water crisis, saying it\u2019s \u201ca fair and sensible resolution of the claims against the settling defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Michigan Supreme Court threw out charges on Tuesday against former Governor Rick Snyder and eight public officials involved in the 2014 Flint Water crisis, saying a one-man jury wrongly indicted them. Attorney General Dana Nessel, who took office in 2019, authorized using a one-man grand jury rather than charging officials in open court. That &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":1531664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1531631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1531631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1531631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1531664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1531631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1531631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1531631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}