| Detroit Free Press
(Note: the Snyder trial above starts at 27:15 in the video)
Former Gov. Rick Snyder has appeared in a Flint court this morning, pleading not guilty to two counts of willful misconduct – misconduct imposed on the eve of a major announcement later in the Flint water crisis’ criminal investigation.
Despite the lower level of charges compared to other defendants, the case against Snyder was an important moment in the state’s political history. Snyder is the first governor or former governor of Michigan to be charged with a crime for alleged conduct in office.
Snyder, 62, wore a blazer jacket, a light blue collared shirt without a tie and a gray face mask for the court appearance. He was sitting next to his attorney, Brian Lennon, in a jail cell in Genesee County while they appeared for the trial via Zoom.
Snyder spoke sparingly during the trial. His only words were ‘yes, your honor’ in response to Odette’s question of whether he lives in the state. Snyder did not say which city or town.
Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office tried during the trial before Genesis judge Christopher Odette to restrict Snyder’s travel during the case by handing over his passport because Snyder was a “man of means”. is with international contacts.
However, Odette only ordered Snyder not to leave the state without the permission of the court.
“I’m not going to let him give up his passport on misconduct,” Odette said.
Odette also drafted a $ 10,000 personal recognition bond on each charge for Snyder. The former governor walked out of the province after the trial with the sheriff, but did not comment on pending reporters and photographers.
“The two charges against former governor Rick Snyder, who are criminals, are completely merit-free, and this whole situation is enigmatic,” Brian Lennon, attorney and partner of Warner Norcross + Judd, said in a statement Thursday.
Nessel filed two charges of intentional failure of duty against Snyder on Wednesday, a day before her office will release new details in the Flint water crisis investigation.
According to the district court in Genesee, it appears that the charges stem from an alleged offense on April 25, 2014 – the day Flint started using the Flint River as a new water source.
Each charge Snyder faces is an offense punishable by up to one year in prison or a fine of up to $ 1,000.
Prosecutors rarely rallied against the state’s top executives in or out of office. In 1975, former Democratic Gov. John Swainson was charged with bribery while a member of the Michigan Supreme Court. Swainson, who was governor of Michigan in 1961 and 1962, was later acquitted of bribery but convicted of perjury. He died in 1994.
Nessel, a Democrat elected in 2018, will make a major announcement Thursday in the state’s criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis. Nessel’s office said the outcome of the state’s criminal investigation would be discussed, but it gave no details on who might be charged or what the nature of the charges might be.
New charges in the Flint criminal case point to a dramatic increase in the long dormant prosecution. Critics have challenged criminal investigators at one time for only filing complaints against lower-ranking local and state officials while bypassing Snyder. However, some legal experts believe that convicting a former governor for his conduct in office could be a significant challenge.
Snyder, a Republican who has not held office for two years, was governor when governors in Flint switched the city’s water to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-saving move while building a pipeline to Lake Huron. However, the water was not treated to reduce corrosion – a disastrous decision upheld by state regulators led to leaching of old pipes and poisoning the distribution system used by nearly 100,000 residents.
The prosecution also extended Thursday to more serious charges against one of Snyder’s former top assistants as well as his former director of the health department.
Richard Baird, a leading assistant to former government Rick Snyder, is charged with four crimes – including extortion and obstruction of justice – as part of the criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis.
Judge Elizabeth Genesee, Elizabeth Kelly, on Thursday pleaded not guilty to the charges. The basis for the charges was not discussed.
Randall Levine, Baird’s lawyer, said in the statement that the accusations were unfounded and politically motivated.
“Mr Baird is innocent of any offense and is being unfairly prosecuted by the State’s Democratic Attorney General,” Levine said.
The extortion charge carries a maximum fine of 20 years imprisonment and / or a fine of $ 10,000. Baird, 64, is also charged with perjury during an investigative subpoena, an offense punishable by up to 15 years in prison; misconduct in office, an offense punishable by up to five years in prison; and obstruction of justice, an offense punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment.
Kelly ordered Baird to surrender his passport, although he was allowed to travel for work between Michigan and Illinois, where he lives in Chicago. The extortion cost bond was fixed on a $ 50,000 cash surety. Mortgage for the other charges includes $ 75,000 personal recognition effects for each of the obstruction of justice and costs of perjury, and 10% of a $ 15,000 mortgage for the legal costs.
According to Levine, Baird is a member of the board of regents at Eastern Michigan University.
“The people of Flint are rightly upset and angry about what happened in Flint,” Levine said. “Their government has failed them on so many levels. However, the evidence will show that Rich Baird is not responsible for what the people in the city where he grew up came up with. I expect him to be justified. ”
Former director of the health department Nick Lyon, 52, was charged on Thursday morning with nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. He is also facing a charge of willful misconduct. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The judge set a $ 200,000 bail for Lyon on all charges. His lawyer Charles Chamberlain said his client was innocent and called it a “dangerous day for civil servants”.
“Our hearts go out to the citizens of Flint who have endured the consequences of the decision,” Chamberlain said in a written statement. “But it does not help the people of Flint – or our criminal justice system – for the state to charge innocent people with crimes.”
‘He did not make the decision to change the water supply and had nothing to do with the handling of the water. Everything he did as director of the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS), he did on the advice of highly trained epidemiologists and public health scientists and experts who looked at the science themselves and followed the data . The Attorney General once again ignored the facts and evidence. ”
The former director of Flint’s Department of Public Works, Howard Croft, was also in court Thursday morning.
Croft is facing the same charges as Snyder – two charges of willful misconduct by a public official.
Croft sat next to his hockey attorney at Genesee County Jail and appeared for his arrest via Zoom in Odette’s courtroom.
The judge reviewed the charges and set the terms of his release: a $ 10,000 personal bond for each count with some restrictions on his trip.
Grand Blanc, 55, of Grand Blanc does not have to hand over his passport, but he cannot leave the state without the permission of the court, Odette said. Croft may not discuss the case with other defendants.
Croft’s attorney, Alexander Rusek, emphasized Croft’s deep ties with the Flint community during the assignment, including his first job at a Flint McDonald’s and later working at General Motors before working for the city of Flint.
Rusek noted that Croft was on a mortgage for 911 days and appeared for all court hearings when he was indicted by the attorney general’s office in 2016 in his first charge in the case, which Nessel eventually dismissed in ‘ an attempt to restart and revamp. the investigation.
“I believe in this matter the likelihood of conviction is low,” Rusek said.
Former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley, 69, was also executed on Thursday morning on three counts of misconduct in office, his attorney, Todd Russell Perkins, said. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $ 75,000 personal confession on each of the three charges, he said.
Two charges relate to allegations of providing misleading information regarding the quality of drinking water, and the third relates to violating the House Rule Act for authorizing more debt than was available, Perkins said.
Some who were originally charged in the case appear to be staying away from Nessel’s renewed prosecution.
An attorney for Robert Scott said Thursday that the attorney general through the attorney general decided in late summer or early fall not to charge him.
Attorney Mary Chartier said Scott is now retired from the Department of Health and Human Services in Michigan and was the lowest paid employee in the first round. He sat in a box at MDHHS and treated data on blood lead levels, including elevated blood lead levels.
Some community and religious leaders have welcomed the news of the resurgent prosecutions in the Flint water case, especially charges against the former governor.
“Snyder did not protect and serve the people. He did not look after our well-being, and for that he must be held accountable,” Bishop Bernadel Jefferson of the Faith Deliverance Center in Flint said in a statement.
Eileen Hayes, executive director of Michigan Faith in Action, called Nessel’s extensive prosecutions “a step in the right direction”.
“It felt like the governor was coming off unscathed and that other players who were also bad actors were getting away with it as well. The idea that something is going to happen now – there is some comfort in that,” Hayes said. in a statement.
Staff writers Christine MacDonald, Jennifer Dixon and Paul Egan contributed to this report.
Contact Joe Guillen: 313-222-6678 or [email protected]