Criminal case against Flint Water Crisis defendants ends without conviction

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - The door on criminal prosecutions related to the Flint Water Crisis has "effectively" closed after the Michigan Supreme Court's latest ruling, the Michigan Attorney General's office said.

The high court declined to hear an appeal on a lower court ruling that dismissed the charges against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, the outstanding case in the team's prosecution of the case, which has extended years after the city had clean water restored to its residents. 

"At the time, the Court has left us with no option but to consider the Flint Water Prosecutors closed," a release from the AG's office said. A longer report is expected next year.

"Today, our Supreme Court has put the final nail in the coffin of the Flint Water Prosecutions," the Flint Water Prosecution Team said.  "The Court decided that a process which has stood in place for over a century, one whose legitimacy the Court upheld repeatedly, was simply not ‘good enough’ to hold those responsible for the Flint Water Crisis accountable for their actions."

Charges against nine people were initially brought using a one-man grand jury that was represented by a Genesee County circuit judge. While the judge found cause to issue 11 indictments in the government's criminal case against people seen as the architects of contaminated water being issued to residents of Flint, a ruling last year determined the process was not authorized.

The case, overseen by Chief Deputy Fadwa Hammoud, was restarted after the prosecution dismissed the original case in 2019.

"The residents of Flint deserved their day in court," said the Flint Water Prosecution Team. "If a jury decided that the defendants were not guilty of the charged offenses, so be it. To deny the opportunity to present the evidence and to let the victims tell their story is truly heartbreaking."