By Ron Fonger
Flint, MI -- Prosecutors (click here) will have to prove criminal cases against current and former state employees charged with Flint water crisis crimes without a planned witness -- a city resident they say died last month because of exposure to Legionella bacteria.
During the first day of preliminary examinations for four employees of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, special prosecutor Todd Flood outlined a witness roster that included a member of Karenise Westbrook's family.
Flood had notified attorneys for the defendants that he planned to call Westbrook herself to testify, but she died Dec. 21, before the exams started against DEQ employees Stephen Busch, Michael Prysby, Patrick Cook and former official Liane Shekter-Smith.
Testimony is set to resume in the combined examinations on Monday, Feb. 5, before Genesee District Judge Jennifer Manley....
September 21, 2017
By Oona Goodin-Smith
...Before Genesee District Judge David J. Goggins' (click here) packed courtroom, Zervos explained that according to the state's public health criteria, Legionnaires' must only be listed as a cause of death of a person if they die from contracting the bacteria during hospitalization or 30 days after being discharged.
For example, Zervos said, if a patient contracted legionella bacteria while in a hospital, but died six months later after the bacteria weakened their heart, their cause of death - by public health definition - would be "heart failure," but could be considered by disease specialists to be precipitated by legionella....
..."That's why I say it's likely more than 12 actually died from the outbreak," Zervos said.
Zervos' testimony may provide insight into why prosecutors have charged Lyon and four others with the involuntary manslaughter of 85-year-old Robert Skidmore, a Genesee Township man whose death certificate says he died of congestive heart failure.
Neither Legionnaires' disease nor legionella is listed on the county's record of Skidmore's death....
This usually is published on Friday evenings. When an individual Congressman tries to commit treason to my country it became a bit upsetting and distracting.
