I see Todd, but where is Andy?
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Judge: Michigan health chief Lyon heads to trial on Flint crisis manslaughter charges
Flint — Michigan health and welfare chief Nick Lyon will stand trial on felony charges including involuntary manslaughter related to the Flint water crisis, a judge ruled Monday.
67th District Court Judge David Goggins made the announcement in a nearly 160-minute ruling from the bench after delaying the decision more than three weeks in the most anticipated Flint water prosecution case.
Lyon will go to trial on two counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of misconduct in office connected to the Flint region's 2014-2015 Legionnaires' disease outbreak that killed 12 people and sickened another 79 people. No public notice about the outbreak was given until Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder made the announcement in mid-January 2016 at a hastily arranged press conference in Detroit.
Lyon "had the ability" to know how many Legionnaires' disease deaths there were in the Flint area and has the "power" as the state's health chief to protect lives and "enforce laws" to that end, the judge ruled, citing prosecution witnesses including retired state epidemiologist Corinne Miller.
Goggins found that Lyon knew about the outbreak in 2015.
Special Prosecutor Todd Flood recently added a misdemeanor charge of "willful neglect" to protect the health of Genesee County residents, but Goggins on Monday appeared to dismiss the charge. He spoke faintly, and courtroom spectators strained at times to hear what he was saying.
If convicted, Lyon could face up to 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charges and up to another five years on the misconduct charge. Up to $25,000 in fines could be added for the three charges.
Goggins was in no hurry to make a decision. Reading from a yellow notepad full of notes, he read from each and every page.
The judge covered every person from the more than 20 prosecution witnesses, from state health officials to the relatives of elderly Flint area residents Richard Skidmore and John Snyder, whom the prosecution say died from Legionnaire's disease that Lyon failed to warn the public about.
To send a case to trial for a jury to consider, the judge must decide whether there’s probable cause that a "reasonable person, based on the evidence, could find the defendant guilty," Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning said.
Lyon walked into court with his wife more than a half an hour before the hearing was scheduled to start, hugging family members and then sitting down with his wife on a bench outside the courtroom. The hearing started 45 minutes late.
Among those in the courtroom were former state Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, and former Snyder Community Health Director James Haveman, who has supported Lyon.
The preliminary exam involved 10 months of testimony — starting last September with prosecution witnesses and then this spring with defense witnesses.
Prosecutors contended Lyon should have warned the public of the Flint region's Legionnaires' disease outbreak and could have saved lives.
The defense lawyers countered that Lyon runs a department of 14,000 employees and relied on the expertise of department employees, none of whom recommended issuing a public warning. They also argued the prosecution failed to make any connection between Lyon and the men's deaths, arguing they died from long-term diseases but not Legionnaires'.
Because Skidmore and Snyder went to McLaren hospital in Flint, where medical officials had been warned about Legionnaires' disease, a public announcement wouldn’t have prevented their deaths, the defense said.
Former state-appointed Flint Emergency Manager Gerald Ambrose already has skipped his preliminary exam and will go straight to trial.
Michigan Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells and four current and former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality regulators are still going through their preliminary exams after being charged criminally. No date has been set for Wells' bind-over ruling.
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