FLINT (WWJ) - A day after dismissing all criminal charges against eight people in the Flint water scandal and restarting the investigation, Michigan's Attorney General says it's likely more charges will be filed.
Speaking with WWJ's Jackie Paige, Dana Nessel said her new prosecution team is going over an abundance of evidence that has never been reviewed before.
"They have received what seems to be in the neighborhood of about 20 times as much information as they have before; millions and millions of documents that had never been reviewed and dozens of electronic devices that had never been reviewed, either," she said.
While Nessel wouldn't specifically say if former Governor Rick Snyder would face charges, she did say Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy will conduct a full investigation.
"They will go after anyone and everyone who has criminal liability but they will also make certain to exonerate those who are not criminally liable. So, I don't know who they're going to end up charging. All I can say is if anyone has been following Kym Worthy's career, they'll know that she's not afraid to go after anybody," said Nessel. "It seems likely that there will be a number of new charges that are filed and possibly cases against people that were never charged before. But only time will tell and they'll have to review the evidence in order to make that assessment."
The water crisis in Flint was one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in U.S. history. Flint's water was deemed undrinkable after it became contaminated when the struggling city switched from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-cutting move. Untreated water leached lead from pipes and into Flint's homes and businesses while financial managers — appointed by Snyder — were running the city.
On Thursday, prosecutors dropped charges against eight people, saying investigators had "immediate and grave concerns" about the investigative approach and legal theories embraced by the Office of Special Counsel, appointed by former Attorney General Bill Schuette. Millions of dollars have already been spent in the investigation, which started more than three years ago.
Those who had charges dismissed include former health director Nick Lyon and former chief medical executive Eden Wells, both accused of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly failing to alert the public in a timely fashion about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. The others include former Flint emergency managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley, as well as Patrick Cook, Howard Croft, Nancy Peeler and Robert Scott.
Seven other people charged in the case pleaded no contest to misdemeanors and will eventually have their records scrubbed clean. No one is serving jail time. Nessel said that's because former special prosecutor Todd Flood, was ousted as special prosecutor in April after leading the three-year investigation, dropped the ball. She said Flood's work was more about politics and trying to get Schuette into the governor's office than justice.
"I think he did drop the ball on this. All I have to say is, you know, who of the 15 people that were charged, why is it that between when I won the election in November and I took office on January 1, there was this slew of cases that pled out from felonies to 90 day misdemeanors under advisement, meaning they eventually got dismissed," she said.
A town hall meeting for Nessel and others to address the public is planned for June 28.
