Michigan state workers charged in Flint water crisis

Those charged include Adam Rosenthal, Patrick Cook, and Liane Shekter-Smith, all with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

All are accused of misconduct in office, and most face willful neglect of duty charges.

Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office filed the charges.

“Each attempted to bury or cover up, downplay or hide info that contradicted their own narrative, their story”. “We’re starting to work our way up, and expanding our investigation”.

Schuette alleged in court Friday that the Health and Human Services employees being charged worked to bury a report a year ago that detailed elevated lead levels among Flint residents, the Detroit News said. That report, created on July 28, 2015 using sound scientific principles, showed a significant spike- higher than usual- in blood lead tests for Flint children for the summer of 2014.

Flint’s drinking water became contaminated in lead in April 2014 after the city, while under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, switched from treated water supplied from Detroit to raw water from the Flint River, which was treated at the Flint Water Treatment Plant.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette (c.) and his investigative team have brought six more charges against state employees.. He worked for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. Lead contamination has been linked to learning disabilities and other problems.

Schuette, who is overseeing the probe, filed charges in April against two other Department of Environmental Quality workers and a Flint water quality supervisor. [They are] families who have been lied to by government officials, and treated as if they don’t count.

Schuette last month sued French water company Veolia Environnement SA and Houston-based engineering services firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam for “botching” their roles in the city’s drinking water crisis. “But when our investigation is completed and our prosecutions are successful-and we believe they will be-then accountability and justice will be delivered to families of Flint and families of MI”.

Glasgow pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor in exchange for his agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.

Residents immediately complained about the smell, taste and appearance of the water, and soon reported that it was causing health problems – they had rashes and were losing their hair – but Flint stuck with the cost-cutting plan.