Michigan AG Files Criminal Charges Against Former Flint Emergency Managers
Mich. AG charges ex-state-appointed Flint emergency managers with felonies, alleges they knew water was not safe.
Michigan’s Attorney General is filing new criminal charges in regards to the lead contamination in the city of Flint’s water supply.
The Attorney General is targeting officials he says helped dictate the switch to the contaminated water source.
Attorney General Bill Schuette is accusing former state-appointed Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose of approving a contract to use the city’s river as a drinking source even though they allegedly knew Flint could not properly treat the water.
Schuette says the emergency managers also resisted reconnecting to Detroit’s safe water supply in order to save money.
“It’s been very evident during the course of this investigation (that there) has been a fixation on finances and balance sheets. This fixation has cost lives,” Schuette said.
The former emergency managers and two others face felony charges of entering a contract under false pretenses and conspiring to commit an action based on false pretenses.
Both charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Schuette has now charged 13 people in connection to his ongoing investigation into the water crisis in Flint, which developed after the city switched to using its river for drinking water without properly treating pipes to limit corrosion.
That failure allowed lead to leach into the city’s water supply.
