“Pregnant moms and mothers with newborns still should not drink the water and that’s not right”, Schuette said last week.
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Criminal charges are expected Friday related to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
A state-appointed emergency financial manager was running Flint in April 2014 when the city began using the Flint River to provide its drinking water after nearly 50 years of receiving water supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. And their story was there’s nothing wrong with Flint water, and it was perfectly safe to use. Experts also suspect a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak was tied to the water.
At the press conference Schuette stated that in Fall 2015 epidemiologist Cristin Larder presented a report showing that blood tests done in July – September 2015 found that Flint residents had increased levels of lead in their blood. He said Miller has left the health department, but Peeler and Scott are still employed.
Flint’s water supply became contaminated with lead after the city switched its water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River as the result of financial difficulties.
Adam Rosenthal: Charges allege that current MDEQ employee Adam Rosenthal, who worked in Shekter-Smith’s section, was warned by Flint Water Treatment Plant officials that they were not ready for operations and was later warned by the EPA that high levels of lead is usually due to particulate lead, signaling a corrosion problem. Although officials first claimed that there was no danger in drinking the water, it was later discovered that the water had given many of Flint’s children lead poisoning.
Shekter Smith was sacked from the environmental department.
A lawyer for Mrs Shekter Smith said that the charges came as a surprise, saying that investigators will be “really hard-pressed to find that she did anything wrong, and certainly nothing criminally wrong”. “Lawsuits, I can understand”.
“I have been involved in thousands of cases”, the attorney said.
Additionally, Schuette told the press that he would make sure that those responsible were held accountable. Peeler and Scott are still employed there.
Those indicted included staff from the Department of Environmental Quality, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Shekter-Smith has been charged with misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty.
Cook is charged with misconduct in office, conspiracy to commit misconduct in office and a misdemeanor charge of willful neglect of duty by a public officer.
In April, Schuette and Flood accused two mid-level Michigan Department of Environmental Quality officials and a Flint water administrators manipulating water test results, tampering with evidence and lying to federal and county officials about the safety of Flint’s water.
Miller, Peeler and Scott have been charged with one count of misconduct in office, one count of conspiracy and one count of willful neglect of duty. The state has also filed a civil suit against two companies that allegedly knew about the poisoned water and failed to act.
When Schuette announced this week that he was handing down more criminal charges, speculation loomed over whether he would seek to indict higher-level officials or politicians.
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“Scott and Peeler conspired together and with others known and unknown to effectively bury Larder’s report warranting further investigation”, Seipenko said Friday morning in court.
