The lawsuit was filed against the city of Flint, the state of Michigan and several key players in the Flint water crisis, including former Mayor Dayne Walling, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, former Emergency Managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
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Prysby and Busch are charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, tampering with evidence, a treatment violation of the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act and a monitoring violation of the Safe Drinking Water.
Stephen Busch and Michael Prysby, both Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) officials, entered not guilty pleas on Wednesday, Dena Altheide, a court administrator with the 67th District Court of Genesee County in Flint, said in an email. He could face four years in prison.
Mike Cox, who previously served as Michigan’s attorney general, told Bloomberg BNA that the state investigation would likely next look at people on the same level or above those who were charged.
“So many things went so terribly wrong in Flint”, said Schuette at a press conference on April 20.
Though he has apologized publicly for the contamination, which resulted from a decision to switch the source of the city’s water, Snyder told a news conference on Wednesday he did not believe he was himself criminally liable.
In Kansas, 18 private and government water systems had reported lead levels in their water samples exceeding federal limits.
In a show of faith in the safety of Flint’s drinking water amid the lead crisis, Snyder announced Monday that, for at least 30 days, at work and at home, he will drink filtered tap water. “However, following the completion of the State Police investigation that he requested, he plans to review that decision again”, Brown said.
According to MLive, the individuals charged are Flint employee Michael Glasgow and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employees Steven Busch and Michael Prysby.
For Flint residents, this may be a lot to soak in. “I guarantee it.” But what’s left unsaid who else might be charged or what direction the investigation will take next.
His attorney, Robert Harrison, said he has not received a copy of the warrant and complaint filed against his client, and most of what he knows is what’s been in the news.
None of which diminishes the severity of the charges against Glasgow, Prysby and Busch.
Michael Glasgow, a Flint water official, faces a felony charge of tampering with evidence for allegedly altering and falsifying reports to state and federal regulators that made it appear lead levels in the city’s water supply were lower than they actually were.
“We are working closely together on this investigation because the people of Flint deserve nothing less than the truth and we will keep working until we get to the bottom of this”, said Leyton.
“They had a duty to protect the health of families and citizens of Flint”.
But environmentalists including Michigan Sierra Club Chair David Holtz and Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter expressed hope that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) would be held accountable. City infrastructure was damaged and the municipal water supply still remains unsafe to drink.
“These charges are only the beginning, and there will be more to come”, Schuette said.
Mona Hanna-Attisha speaks during a House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing on The Flint Water Crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Local resident William Chatman, 61, was at Bible study in a Flint church where he has helped distribute water when the charges were announced Wednesday. “The people of Flint to this day struggle for basic water needs while state officials do little to remedy the situation”.
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But they shouldn’t be the last, according to residents of the city who had water contaminated with lead pumped into their homes.
