By Courtney Bennett
It has been 15-months (click here) since the Michigan Solicitor General announced charges against nine people in connection to the Flint water crisis.
Through a one-man grand jury, these nine were indicted.
Now, two defendants say want a preliminary exam because their lawyers say a one-man grand jury is not constitutional under Michigan law.
In eight years no one connected to the Flint water crisis has been convicted of any wrongdoing.
Defense attorneys for Nick Lyon and nancy peeler argue the one-man grand jury is causing harm to these defendants.
“The question that the court really has to ask is, does it have a sufficient set of facts?," said Wayne State Law professor Peter Hammer....
Civil cases are different than criminal cases, only a preponderance of the evidence is necessary, not beyond a shadow of a doubt. Evidently, the Fifth Amendment is not as a protected status in these cases.
By Murjani Rawls
U.S. District Judge Judith Levy (click here) ruled that former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and four other officials must testify in the Flint water crisis civil trial against several engineering firms, Detroit Free Press reports.
Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, and Veolia North America are being sued on behalf of children harmed by the contaminated drinking water. The companies were not a part of the $626.5 million settlement agreement granted in 2021. Attorneys representing the children allege the companies were negligent in not doing more to get the city to properly treat water that was being pulled from the Flint River in 2014-15....
