Michigan’s Top Health Official could Face Trial on Involuntary Manslaughter Charges
MI AG accuses top state health official of not telling public about deadly Legionnaire’s disease outbreak near Flint.
The Flint Water Plant water tower in Flint, Mich.
Michigan officials are preparing to continue a preliminary exam that could leave the state’s top health official facing a trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.
Lawyers for Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office say they want to call several more witnesses in the case against the head of the state Health and Human Services Department.
The Attorney General charged Nick Lyon with involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office in connection with the death of a resident of the Flint area, 85-year-old Robert Skidmore.
He died after being diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease.
The Attorney General accuses Lyon of knowing that there had been an outbreak of Legionnaires near Flint after the city’s water was tainted with lead but failing to tell the public about it.
Gov. Rick Snyder eventually acknowledged the outbreak of the disease in early 2016.
