How in the world did Attorney General Dana Nessel allow this to happen? The Michigan supreme court ruled today on a 6-0 vote that Michigan statutes explicitly prohibit judges in that process from issuing indictments. That means former governor Rick Snyder and eight other officials are off the hook. And not for the first time either, thanks to Nessel:
In bringing charges last year against Michigan officials, including former Gov. Rick Snyder, prosecutors said they had failed to protect the safety and health of Flint residents, who were sickened by increased levels of lead and by Legionnaires’ disease after the city’s water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014.
But prosecutors appointed by Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, relied on a one-man grand jury to issue indictments against Mr. Snyder, a Republican, and eight others, including the former state health director and the state’s former chief medical officer. The Supreme Court said Tuesday that single-person grand juries could not be used in that way.
That’s right — apparently Nessel and her team didn’t bother to read the statutes governing the process. The court was unanimous, as well as “unequivocal and scathing” in its rebuke to Nessel, according to one defendant’s attorney. The controlling opinion is rather tame, but the concurrence from Judge Bernstein brings a little more fire:
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Perhaps there’s a rational explanation for that that doesn’t involve Nessel and her team grandstanding for political effect. If there is, Michigan voters will no doubt want to hear it. That may also create some problems for Nessel if she tries to go back for what would be a third attempt at prosecuting the same people because of prosecutorial incompetence in Nessel’s office. At some point, the process will have become punitive in itself, and certainly looks more political than prosecutorial at this point.
That doesn’t mean that the people of Flint should have to forgo justice in the case of these alleged crimes. However, at this point it may be better for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to appoint outside counsel to investigate and prosecute any alleged crimes from the Flint water crisis, and to use a proper grand jury too.
