Flint special investigator Todd Flood removed from state's prosecution team
Todd FloodLANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Detroit attorney Todd Flood has been removed from the state's prosecution team dealing with the Flint water crisis.
Flood was hired by former GOP state attorney general Bill Schuette, but the new Democratic attorney general Dana Nessel has accepted his resignation even though she told reporters earlier this year she wanted to negotiate a new contract with him.
Flood has recently had surgery to place a stint in his heart after doctors discovered 100% and 96% blockage in two arteries.
It was Flood who charged two top state officials with manslaughter for their alleged misconduct in handling the Flint crisis.
Millions of Flint water documents found in basement, prosecutors claim
Solicitor General Fadwa A. Hammoud made the explosive claim in a 10-page request for a six-month delay in the prosecution of former state Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, whose attorney said the request amounted to nothing more than stalling in a case that was originally filed nearly two years ago.
“Although the duration of the requested stay is, admittedly, a lengthy one, it is indisputably commensurate with the volume of evidence that has been unknown to (if not withheld from) the People -- not to mention the importance of these prosecutions to the citizens of the state of Michigan,” the request says.
The postponement request also says the records -- collected in response to investigative subpoenas filed by former special prosecutor Todd Flood -- were never completely reviewed before criminal charges -- including involuntary manslaughter -- were filed against Lyon. The filing also claims prosecutors have learned “only a slice” of evidence requested was turned over to them and says evidence that was supplied “did not conform to data delivery standards that would have made it digestible, searchable and analyzable.”
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John Bursch, one of the attorneys for Lyon, called Friday a “devastatingly bad day” for prosecutors, who have “no case” against his client.
“Among the newly discovered evidence is a list of names ominously titled ‘Phones/Wiped,' along with data from at least one cell phone that the People were told did not exist," the request says.
Chip Chamberlain, an attorney for Lyon, called the requested delay “nothing but a stall tactic” and said the former DHHS director would fight the postponement.
Lyon asks judge to stop jury trial, overturn lower court's Flint water decision
"If allowed to proceed, this case will have a terrible chilling effect on those serving in state government as well as those merely considering such service," the filing says.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general declined to comment in detail on information in the new motion, saying it "speaks for itself. "
The Journal could not immediately reach Flood, who remains a part of the state’s prosecution team, for comment on Friday’s court filing.
In the filing, the attorney general’s office claims the new records were part of the response to subpoenas served on state officers and agencies, including Lyon, for data including voicemails, computer hard drives, audio and video recordings.
The request says that since the attorney general’s office took direct control of the Flint water prosecutions from Flood earlier this year, they have “learned of the existence of millions of pages of documents as well as phone extractions and other materials stored on hard drives recovered in a state-owned facility’s basement, that were responsive to the original subpoenas but were not turned over.”
The filing says those parties served the subpoenas were aware of the materials but “erroneously represented to the prosecution that the prosecution already possessed these materials in their entirety.”
In a brief in support of the request, the attorney general’s office says 23 boxes of evidence “were languishing in the basement” when information about them was discovered. Attorneys within the AG’s office were aware of the records but believed they were duplicates of data already turned over in relation to the case.
The same assistant attorney generals were responsible for the civil defense of “individuals whom this office is investigating in a criminal capacity" and took direction from attorneys outside the office “who are also responsible for the individuals’ civil (and now criminal) defenses," according to the brief.
Among the records in the boxes was data from a state employee’s cell phone despite claims from attorneys for Lyon that the employee had no cell phones preserved or imaged, the brief says, and the file titled “Phones/Wiped,” “which listed the names of eight state employees.”
Only one of these eight individuals appeared in documentation provided by the respondents, who could not explain the significance of the list of individuals," the court record says.
The brief claims that while there is circumstantial evidence of “bad faith concealment” by either Lyon or his attorneys, the state is not alleging that “at this time.”
“Simply put, the People issued investigative subpoenas that sought particular materials, and those materials were not provided,” the brief says.
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