Jordan was also talking about how VICE would not pick up his work.
Jordan never shared his information with the Michigan State Police or the FBI, or with anyone else, for that matter, because, I guess, he wants the scoop, where I believe Richard Baird may become the sacrificial lamb to cover up all the stealin' the children, land & vote up there in Genessee County Land Bank territory, but, hey, what do I know.
I know this is about to get juicy, because Kym Worthy, as word delivered to me, is not in a happy place right about now.
I wonder how Fadwa Hammoud is doing?
Todd Flood was working with Andy Arena.
Where is Andy?
Who else had their hands on these transcripts?
Who was the transcription service?
Just asking.
Perhaps, someone should ask Jordan.
Someone should ask Kym and Fadwa how come they are not focusing on all that stuff about all the contracts and land bank stuff.....oh, drats, I forgot, if they did that, they would implicate themselves in what was going on in Wayne County and all those properties that just so happened to end up in the Detroit Land Bank Authority.
Lansing — Prosecutors involved in Flint's water investigation believe someone illegally provided confidential interview transcripts featuring aides to former Gov. Rick Snyder to a media outlet.
VICE News cited transcripts of interviews with multiple former officials, including Richard Baird, in a wide-ranging April 16 expose on the Snyder administration handling of lead-tainted water in Flint. Then, on Thursday, the Detroit Metro Times published another story by the reporters of the VICE piece with the full transcripts of the Baird interviews.
A new prosecution team appointed by Attorney General Dana Nessel continues to investigate the water crisis. Courtney Covington, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, said the prosecution team has "grave concerns about the unauthorized disclosure of investigative subpoena transcripts."
"Investigative subpoenas are, by statute, confidential, and their release without a court order is a violation of the law," Covington said. "Such conduct obstructs the investigation that the people of Flint are entitled to and threatens to jeopardize our pursuit of justice."
However, she wouldn't comment on whether prosecutors were investigating the leak.
The transcripts detail interviews between Todd Flood, who previously led the Flint water prosecution team under former Attorney General Bill Schuette, and Baird from February and March 2017.
Baird was previously Snyder's transformation manager. Snyder and Schuette left office at the end of 2018.
The interview transcripts featuring Baird are marked "highly confidential." And in one of the documents, Flood specifically tells Baird, "This is confidential. It's that simple. So I keep it confidential."
The transcript "doesn't go anywhere" and is "sealed into an evidence room upstairs," Flood adds at another point.
Citing VICE's reporting, Metro Times alleged "prosecutors were investigating alleged attempts by Baird to pay off sick, publicly outspoken Flint residents with offers that included state-funded medical treatment, expanded Medicaid and home infrastructure replacements for pipes and water heaters damaged by Flint River water."
Randall L. Levine, Baird's attorney, said in a statement to The Detroit News on Monday that claims in the articles about Baird "are false based upon presumption and wrongly place him in a false light."
Baird had been informed that he was not a target of the government’s investigation, Levine said. And Baird voluntarily appeared for the interviews and did not claim privilege as he had nothing to hide, the attorney said.
As for the release of the transcripts, Levine said it "appears the only way such documents could have been leaked would be by the government, which is extremely troubling."
"By law, confidential information obtained by the prosecution including testimony and documents secured pursuant to investigative subpoena cannot be available for inspection or divulged and are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act," Levine added.
One year ago this month, Nessel's office removed Flood from leading Flint water prosecution.
On Monday, Flood said he had no idea how the transcripts of his interview with Baird became public. But he acknowledged their release was "absolutely" an illegal act.
"I share the concerns of unauthorized disclosures of confidential material," Flood said in a statement. "I am not in a position to know why someone would do such a reckless act to disclose protected material."
Last year, Nessel removed Flood from the prosecution team. Nessel ordered criminal charges dismissed from the past investigation.
Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy are now leading the prosecution team. On April 17, they promised criminal charges are still coming and that the criminal statute of limitations and the coronavirus pandemic will not stop them.
VICE says its new reporting into the Flint water crisis spanned "a year and a half across the state of Michigan."
After "The Girls" have finally achieved their clowning glory of restarting the investigation and controlling the narrative.
"The Girls" want to know what is in those phones and hard drives.
I believe "The Girls" are going to go after the Madame, Maura Corrigan, and her prayer groups because this all took place under the reign of the Emergency Manager.
This new investigation could be protracted for years, or, it could be an opportunity to address that pesky "attorney-client privilege" immunity when it comes to a public capacity, particularly if you are elected into office as a county prosecutor, because we are dealing with Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, which has its own, illustrious history under Mike Duggan.
It will be interesting to see if "The Girls" are going to pick up on infant mortality charges that are the latest rage in abortion laws being elevated to the national agenda.
Force abortion through an intentionally manufactured crisis is not just forced migration, but murder, and "The Girls" could bring criminal charges against "The Boys" who were behind the contracts.
Charging christian pro lifers with infantcide!
Now, that is what I call a legal, manufactured crisis.
How this proceeds, I can only say at this time that I would recommend a nice pastis, as we are dealing with water because we have ourselves a federal investigation going on, but hey, what do I know?
Todd Flood
LANSING, 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.
FLINT, MI -- Millions of documents related to the Flint water crisis, including a list of state employees titled “Phones/Wiped,” have been discovered in the basement of a state-owned building, according to a filing Friday, April 26, by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office in Genesee Circuit Court.
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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Ex-health director fights decision to stand trial in Flint water case
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.
Rick Sollars has a story to tell about gerrymandering.
We are listening.
I wonder what Rashida Tlaib has to say, considering this is her district, and all.
Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars speaks during his
State of the City address last month.
FBI agents seized $206,493 from the home of Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars last month while investigating the Downriver politician for racketeering, bribery, wire fraud and money laundering.
The FBI revealed the seizure Friday, one month after a series of daylight raids that included searches at Taylor City Hall, Sollars' home and cottage, and the home and office of a city contractor.
The money represents two years' salary for Sollars, who is paid approximately $100,000 as mayor of Taylor.
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment about the seizure, and Sollars' attorney could not be reached for comment Friday.
The seizure is the latest financial and legal issue facing Sollars, 45, who has not been charged with wrongdoing. Sollars has professed his innocence while he remains in office.
Federal prosecutors want to seize his home and vacation chalet in Lenawee County and have filed liens to have the approximately $600,000 worth of real estate forfeited to the government upon conviction.
The liens serve as a looming threat against Sollars and reference some of the most severe white-collar crimes prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Wire fraud and the racketeering charge are punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison.
The Taylor corruption investigation appears to have flowed from an earlier scandal in Macomb County.
FBI agents wiretapped towing titan Gasper Fiore's phone three years ago and heard allegations involving Sollars and a lucrative towing contract, according to sealed court records that hint at the possible roots of a new corruption investigation.
FBI wiretaps in Fiore case led to Taylor mayor
An FBI wiretap affidavit obtained by The News in 2017 that included probable cause to keep listening to Fiore's phone calls gained new relevance in light of a series of FBI raids last month at Sollars' homes and Taylor City Hall.
Records: FBI wiretapped more than dozen in corruption probe
The FBI raids last month included searches at the home and office of a city contractor Tuesday to determine if politicians pocketed bribes and kickbacks.
The searches at the home and office of Realty Transition owner Shady Awad in Allen Park provide a larger picture of an FBI public corruption investigation.
There have been no arrests during the ongoing investigation. It is unclear what, if anything, was seized from Awad's home or office on the 14000 block of Southfield Road because the search warrant affidavits listing probable cause to search the locations have not been unsealed.
The searches targeted a firm that works in Taylor and other municipalities to rehabilitate hundreds of foreclosed and distressed properties. Realty Transition is active in at least 15 local communities, including Detroit, Canton Township, Dearborn, Ecorse, Melvindale, Romulus, Southgate, Westland and Wyandotte, according to the company's website.
Taylor corruption probe leads to businessman
Sollars touted the city's partnership with Realty Transition in 2015 as a way to revitalize 95 tax-foreclosed properties. The city purchases properties and transfers the homes to developers, including Realty Transition, which restores the properties before renting or selling them.
Taylor city officials have refused to reveal what was seized during the city hall raid but a legal fight could soon provide details.
Wayne County Circuit Judge David Allen ordered the city to release search warrant records that the FBI left with city officials after the search, attorney Andrew Paterson said Friday. Paterson had sued the city to obtain the search warrant records, including copies of any subpoenas
DETROIT (FOX 2) - I think it's safe to say that businessman Bob Carmack and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan aren't on speaking terms after Carmack showed video outside city hall last November that he says prove Duggan is having an affair.
Then again, there's an old saying what can happen to "u" and "me" when we assume.
That isn't to say that Duggan and Carmack are BFFs - or even text or chat on the phone. But, to my surprise, it turns out the mayor and his nemesis were holding secret discussions using attorney Todd Flood as an intermediary.
The recordings reveal that Flood spoke to the mayor on Carmack's behalf, but it was never clear precisely what Carmack wanted - or what he had to bargain with. Carmack says he began recording his conversations with Flood after the tone of their conversations caused him to wonder where Flood's loyalties lay.
Flood declined to address Carmack's suspicion. He said it would be inappropriate to discuss his conversations with Carmack.
By now, you may be thinking this is a pretty complicated matter. But we've only covered half of it!
After several days of behind-the-scenes discussions last November, talks broke down and Duggan asked the Michigan State Police to investigate whether he was being threatened. In an exclusive interview, the mayor tells me that he was never sure what Carmack had to offer - and that he was never serious about reaching a deal with Carmack.
Instead, Duggan says he was hoping Carmack would make a specific demand so that he could share that with law enforcement officials.
State police closed their investigation into possible extortion without bringing charges. Meanwhile, Carmack and the city of Detroit are suing each other over multiple matters, including some land Carmack sold for $1 million and the city's bid to evict Carmack from a building where he ran a collision shop.
Separately, Carmack is defending himself against felony charges brought by the Genesee County prosecutor, who accused him of fraud for selling that property - which was once owned by the city of Detroit - for $1 million. Carmack says he did nothing wrong.
To hear Carmack and Flood discuss the attempt to reach a deal with Duggan, check out my latest investigation for Fox 2 Detroit. Then visit Facebook or Twitter and let me know what YOU think.
FBI agents wiretapped towing titan Gasper Fiore's phone three years ago and heard allegations involving Taylor Mayor Rick Sollars and a lucrative towing contract, according to sealed court records that hint at the possible roots of a new corruption investigation.
Gasper Fiore
An FBI wiretap affidavit obtained by The News in 2017 that included probable cause to keep listening to Fiore's phone calls gained new relevance in light of a series of FBI raids Tuesday at Sollars' homes and Taylor City Hall.
"The benefit of a wiretap is people are willing to speak freely and investigators pick up information about other possible cases and learn things they’d never thought of,” Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor, said Wednesday.
In 2016, FBI agents were investigating public corruption and targeting more than a dozen politicians and businessmen, including Fiore and Detroit Councilman Gabe Leland.
In May 2016, Fiore spoke during one wiretapped conversation to a man named Nicholas Primus. Primus described a recent lunch with the Taylor mayor, according to the wiretap affidavit.
During the lunch conversation, Sollars referenced a municipal contract to tow vehicles in Taylor, according to FBI Special Agent Robert Beeckman, who summarized contents of the conversation.
"Apparently, the mayor is leaving it up to (a businessman) and Fiore to work out who is the municipal tower for Taylor," Beeckman wrote in the wiretap affidavit.
The FBI wiretap affidavit was temporarily unsealed in federal court in December 2017 and obtained by The News before it was resealed.
Sollars has not been charged with wrongdoing.
“I will continue to work hard on behalf of the residents of city of Taylor to make sure the people’s work gets done,” he said Tuesday. “I ask that you please respect my family’s privacy and the integrity of this investigation.”
Sollars met with defense attorney Todd Flood following the raids Tuesday but it was unclear if the mayor has retained defense counsel.
Flood could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Fiore, 58, the former owner of Boulevard and Trumbull Towing who prosecutors dubbed the "Baron of Bribery," was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in August for bribing politicians while building a lucrative towing empire across Metro Detroit.
Tow king Fiore sentenced to 21 months in prison
He is cooperating with an ongoing federal corruption investigation and could receive a sentencing adjustment. The extent of Fiore's cooperation, and whether he told investigators anything about Sollars, is a secret but is outlined in a sealed federal court filing that Henning said should concern others linked to an ongoing probe.
“It’s to Fiore’s advantage to cooperate if he can point fingers,” Henning said.
The searches at Taylor City Hall and at Sollars’ homes Tuesday indicates the corruption investigation is at an advanced stage, Henning said.
“They don’t want to build a case just on Fiore. That’s why they conduct searches,” Henning said.
“Documents would back him up and help establish his credibility because he’s an admitted felon.”
Fiore's lawyer did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday.
All I can say is that it is very, conveniently considerate, to lump all the former Wayne County Prosecutors, all in one office.
People profited from the Flint Water Crisis because it was intentional.
How do I know?
I know because you measure the ethics of officeholders based upon how they treat the children.
Right now, in Michigan, child poverty and infant mortality is increasing.
Let us see how this new Wayne County Prosecutor's Office gurlscrew proceeds because the reasons for the replacement are quite questionable to being a cover up.
The chief investigator leading the state’s inquiry into the Flint Water Crisis will be replaced by a team member, who is a former Dearborn Heights police officer.
Andy Arena, the FBI Detroit office’s former director, was relieved of his assignment as head of the investigative team earlier this week, according to a statement from Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.
Bill & Andy. (This picture is art.)
Jeff Seipanko, a three-year member of the attorney general’s investigative team in Flint, will replace Arena.
Arena did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The decision comes roughly two weeks after solicitor general Fadwa Hammoud was appointed to take the lead on the state’s criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis. Nessel said Hammoud’s role in the case allowed Nessel to avoid conflicts of interest by not taking a direct role in either the criminal or civil cases.
Flint Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, who along with Arena, were part of the Flint investigation and appeared with former Attorney General Bill Schuette in June 2017 to make the announcement of the criminal charges in the case. Flood could not be reached for comment.
“There is nothing more important to Attorney General Dana Nessel and to me than to bring these cases home,” Hammoud said in a statement Tuesday.
Seipanko has served as the officer in charge in all of the charged cases in Flint and is the “only certified law enforcement officer” on the team, an attribute Hammoud stressed as important in the statement announcing Seipanko’s promotion.
Since the preliminary hearings began in Flint over the water crisis, Seipanko has been a fixture in the courtroom, often times in the back or in private rooms and in constant contact and communication with the special prosecution team.
In January 2018, Seipanko testified at the preliminary hearing of Nick Lyon, the then-chief of the state Health and Human Services department, that he retrieved Lyon’s iPhone for information extraction. Lyon faces trial in the Flint water crisis case on charges, among others, of involuntary manslaughter.
Seipanko testified about a July 22, 2015, meeting in Lansing with Gov. Rick Snyder’s chief of staff Dennis Muchmore, urban policy adviser Harvey Hollins and Flint residents talking about the lead-in-water problem. A screenshot of a note from Lyon’s phone confirmed the meeting.
“Jeff Seipanko possesses the institutional knowledge and experience required to manage and direct all future investigative assets to bring these cases to conclusion,” said Hammoud.
Seipanko served with the Dearborn Heights Police Department for 29 years and retired from the department as a captain of the investigative services division.
In early January, Nessel asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to review the Flint criminal cases, and Worthy was expected to make recommendations regarding the future of the prosecution, including Flood's future as special prosecutor. That review is ongoing.
LANSING – Weeks after taking the lead on the Flint water crisis criminal cases, Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud has selected a career law enforcement officer as the team’s new chief investigator.
Jeff Seipenko, a member of the Attorney General’s Flint investigative team for three years, replaces Andy Arena, who had been appointed by former Attorney General Bill Schuette as chief investigator in the Flint Water Investigation.
Hammoud relieved Arena of his assignment earlier this week.
Seipenko has been imbedded as the only certified law enforcement officer with the Flint Water Investigative Team since its inception.
During that time, Seipenko has served as the Officer in Charge of all currently charged cases.
“Jeff Seipenko possesses the institutional knowledge and experience required to manage and direct all future investigative assets to bring these cases to conclusion,” said Hammoud.
“It is important that we strengthen our internal team with certified law enforcement officers from within our department as we move forward with criminal prosecutions.”
Special Agent Seipenko has more than 32 years of law enforcement experience, including 29 years with the Dearborn Heights Police Department. He retired there with the rank of Captain, leading the Investigative Services Division.
During his career, Seipenko has successfully led narcotic and surveillance teams, detective units, special operations and internal affairs investigations. Seipanko has decades of specialized investigative experience where he has managed and directed complex criminal investigations.
“We are committed to bringing justice to the people of Flint,” said Hammoud. “There is nothing more important to Attorney General Dana Nessel and to me than to bring these cases home.”
“Attorney General Nessel’s appointment of Fadwa Hammoud to serve as Michigan’s next Solicitor General is a brilliant choice. She is a visionary with an excellent work ethic. This is bittersweet for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and me personally. Fadwa has served all Wayne County residents with integrity, distinction, and honor. We are sad to see her leave Wayne County service, but the citizens of the entire State will be the beneficiary of her fairness and impressive reputation.” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy
I wonder what the gals have planned for Andy Arena?
From a fan...
Flint continued cover up and continued expolitation has officially expanded hard core into Flint and the cover up will likely continue. Unless I can get my hands on the Master Plumber who oversaw the Flint water valve turn on to help answer some questions. I bet they have info they don't realize they have and may help get to the root of the real problem. There is some pipe that is supposed to drain from under Flint City that no one seems to know where it is...as in they kinda lost where it was, or ao they kinda say but don't say.....and many others have been dead headed (sealed off) and whatever is under there is likely nasty and PFAS contaminated. Kildee is asking now for PFAS to be added for Superfund cleanup sites. How convenient. Need to find that outlet to get water tested. Oh, and people allegely from Easter Seals allegedly have a contract with MDHHS in Flint because of water and are handing out what they say are psych meds without any official diagnoses.
The state’s new solicitor general will take lead on the state’s criminal cases related to the Flint water crisis, including the prosecution of involuntary manslaughter charges against two former high-ranking Snyder officials.
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday Fadwa Hammoud’s appointment as solicitor general, making her the first Muslim Arab American to achieve that post in the country. Hammoud is a former lead attorney at the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
Flint Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, who was appointed by Republican former Attorney General Bill Schuette, will report to Hammoud. He successfully convinced 67th District Court judges to bind over for trial former Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and former Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells on criminal charges related to 2014-15 Legionnaire's disease outbreak that killed 12 individuals and sickened at least 79 others.
Schuette's personal supervision of Flood prevented him from engaging in the civil cases related to Flint, Nessel said. Both the civil and criminal cases have continued for years and cost taxpayers millions, she said.
“We don’t prescribe to the idea of prosecution for profit in this office,” Nessel said in a a statement. “I have worked closely with Ms. Hammoud as a prosecutor and trust her to make the right decisions and take the proper steps to ensure justice for the people of Flint. This department has spent millions of dollars on these cases, and our state residents deserve assurance that these cases are handled properly.”
On Tuesday, Flood praised Hammoud.
“Fadwa is a great person and an excellent lawyer who will serve the people of state and Flint very well,” Flood said. “I look forward to working with her.”
Schuette’s position overseeing Flood has remained empty since the turn of the year because Nessel was uncomfortable with the conflicts associated with the role, said Nessel's spokeswoman Kelly Rossman McKinney. Hammoud’s appointment allows Nessel to remain “above the conflict wall” by avoiding a direct role in either the criminal or civil cases.
“For now, (Flood) will report to the solicitor general,” Rossman McKinney said. “She’ll be in court with him tomorrow to watch, listen and learn.”
Special prosecutors will be in 67th District Court for the resumption of the preliminary exam of Patrick Cook, a Department of Environmental Quality water treatment engineer who is accused of misconduct in office, conspiracy to engage in misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty for allegedly manipulating a Lead and Copper Rule report on the levels of lead in Flint’s water.
There have been talks about a possible plea deal for Cook.
In early January, Nessel asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to review the Flint criminal cases, and Worthy was expected to make recommendations regarding the future of the prosecution, including Flood's future as special prosecutor.
Hammoud’s appointment to the case does not interrupt the review of the prosecutions being conducted by Worthy, Rossman McKinney said. The review is ongoing and could influence the future of the cases and who leads them, she said.
Since Worthy and Hammoud worked together in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, “there’s a trusting relationship already established,” Rossman McKinney said.
Worthy declined additional comment on the review, but praised Nessel’s appointment of Hammoud to the cases, calling it a “bittersweet” moment for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
“Attorney General Nessel’s appointment of Fadwa Hammoud to serve as Michigan’s next solicitor general is a brilliant choice,” Worthy said in a statement. “She is a visionary with an excellent work ethic.”
Yes, the Flint Water Crisis will end up in Detroit because everyone was stealin' so the new Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is going to send in her gurl, Kym Worthy, to see who is under investigation so they can be proactive in taking over the prosecution to save her crew.
It may a campaign financing promise, but, hey, what do I know?
FLINT (WJRT) (1/7/2019) - Another Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employee has pleaded no contest to charges related to the Flint water crisis.
Liane Shekter-Smith, the department's former chief of drinking water and municipal assistance, originally was charged in July 2016 with two felonies and one misdemeanor charge.
She pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a lawful meeting, which carries a possible penalty of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. The other charges were dropped in exchange for her plea.
As part of the plea agreement with Special Prosecutor Todd Flood, Shekter-Smith must testify against other government officials charged in the Flint water cases. She likely will be a witness in the upcoming preliminary hearing for former Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and former Flint Water Department Manager Howard Croft.
If she provides misleading statements or fails to cooperate with prosecutors, Flood said a guilty plea to a five-year felony charge of misconduct in office will automatically be entered on her behalf. A review to determine whether she complied with the plea agreement is scheduled for April.
Shekter-Smith and other DEQ officials are accused of failing to do their jobs and provide safe drinking water for Flint residents after the switch to pump water from the Flint River in 2014.
Fellow DEQ officials Michael Prysby and Stephen Busch both pleaded no contest on Dec. 26 to misconduct in office and tampering with water monitoring reports -- both felonies -- along with misdemeanor violations of Michigan's drinking water law.
With Shekter-Smith's plea, seven of 15 people facing criminal charges related to the water crisis have pleaded guilty or no contest. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as one at sentencing.
FLINT, MI -- Three days after new Attorney General Dana Nessel said she wants to replace him, special Flint water prosecutor Todd Flood showed up for work, struck a plea deal with a former state drinking water official and refused to talk about his job security.
Flood answered several questions about his future and Nessel with “no comment” on Monday, Jan. 7, following continuation of a preliminary exam in Genesee District Court.
Nessel issued a news release Friday, Jan. 4, saying she had provided Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, a member of her transition team, “with the relevant materials related to the (Flint water) cases and has requested that her office take over the prosecution of the criminal cases on her behalf.”
Worthy issued her own statement Friday, saying she would evaluate the remaining criminal cases filed by Flood but not necessarily replace him.
That sounds like code for, "I am just going to take a look to see who is going to be charged so I can put together a defensive strategy for Dana and company."
Flood was appointed to the job by former Attorney General Bill Schuette. He’s charged 15 current and former city and state government officials with crimes related to the water crisis.
Seven of those cases resulted in plea agreements, three have been bound over to Genesee Circuit Court for jury trials and five are in the process of preliminary examinations in Genesee District Court.
As a candidate for office earlier this year, Nessel was among critics of the Flint water prosecutions, calling them “politically charged show trials” but didn’t say for certain if Flood would be replaced.
Despite the uncertainty, the special prosecutor is operating as though he plans to continue working on the cases.
Flood told District Judge Jennifer Manley on Monday that he doesn’t need to return to court to check on the status of the cooperation of former Department of Environmental Quality official Liane Shekter-Smith until at least February. That’s after she’s expected to testify in the preliminary exams for former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley and Howard Croft.
Last month, Flood told Genesee Circuit Judge Joseph Farah that he anticipated remaining on the job after the transition from Schuette to Nessel.
But, the Flint Water Crisis, which happened under the Emergency Manager Law, is still a matter of interest for Elijah Cummings, Chair of the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
No Flint water crisis if no Karegnondi Water Authority
KWA started “greatest water war in Michigan history”
GLWA widened war, taking over all of DWSD
KWA initiator Jeff Wright, a Democrat, tied to scandal-plagued Synagro, alleged money-laundering, shady campaign financing
Wright prioritized selling untreated water to DTE, other businesses over the people’s need for treated water
Karegnondi Water Group members get Bond Buyers’ “Midwest Deal of the Year” award in 2014. Without them, the poisoning of Flint would not have happened.
DETROIT – The mass lead poisoning of the people of Flint, Michigan, a cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism, was contrived for the profit of the Wall Street bond market, corporations and politicians by both Republicans and Democrats with their own agendas.
The two parties are battling the matter out in electoral debates, with Michigan’s Republican Governor Rick Snyder justifiably though hypocritically castigated by Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton for his role in this unspeakable catastrophe.
“The governor of that state acted as though he didn’t really care,” Clinton said during the NBC News debate in Charleston, S.C. “If the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would’ve been action.” Clinton’s Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders simply asked Snyder to resign.
In the most cynically exploitative campaign move so far, Clinton just published the video below. It calls for donations to a Flint non-profit, rather than pledging billions from the U.S. Treasury to save Flint, just as the U.S. Treasury bailed out General Motors, which left Flint, taking with it 72,000 jobs.
No politician has expressed any intention of locking Snyder and cronies up for life without parole, the only sentence appropriate under Michigan law, or of providing the billions of dollars necessary to rebuild not only Flint’s water infrastructure, but the city itself, devastated for decades by its abandonment by General Motors and other corporations.
Ten Flint residents have already died from Legionnaire’s disease linked to contamination of the city’s water. Tens of thousands more, especially children and babies, face irreversible life-time damage due to the neurological and behavioral effects of lead, according to the World Health Organization.
A petition to recall Snyder has finally
been approved by the notoriously recalcitrant State Elections Board and will no doubt receive mass support, as it should.
But make no mistake—getting rid of Snyder will not cut out the cancer of racism and profiteering that has devastated Flint, Detroit, and cities across the U.S. for years.
The most blatant example of the bi-partisan midwifery of the Flint water catastrophe is the creation of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), in what a Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) spokesman called “the greatest water war in Michigan’s history.”
He was quoted before the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), which has since robbed the people of Detroit, the largest Black majority city in the U.S., of the entire DWSD, the country’s third largest water and sewerage system, founded in 1836, which had been serving 40 percent of Michigan’s population.
The poisoning of the city of Flint, which is also a majority Black, would not have happened without the creation of the KWA at the instigation of Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright, a white Democrat who has been Drain Commissioner since 2001 and spent 23 years prior to that in the department under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone.
According to U.S. Census figures, Genesee County is 75.2 percent white, and 20.6 percent Black, with a 21 percent poverty level. Flint is 37.4 percent white, and 56.6 percent Black, with a 41.5 percent poverty level.
Jeff Wright, CEO of KWA, Genesee County Drain Commissioner
In 2013, the KWA began building a 63-mile pipeline to Lake Huron that runs parallel to DWSD’s pipeline for the region. While boasting it will lower water rates, the Authority admits the pipeline will only deliver raw water, unlike the DWSD, which delivers fully treated water. Communities which sign on to it will have to treat their own water, creating ways to do so at additional costs to customers and profits to contractors. Wright said in 2011 that he wanted to bring raw water in for the benefit of businesses in the area.
The pipeline was supposed to have been up for operation by 2015.
The KWA now includes the “Genesee County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer County Drain Commissioner, Lapeer City, Sanilac County Drain Commissioner and the City of Flint,” according to its website. St. Clair County is reportedly also considering membership as Wright courts more regional customers.
Wright, who has a history of shady dealings with water contractors, began the push to create the KWA in 2006. Snyder’s appointee, Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz, later endorsed it as well. In 2013, Wright got the Democratic City Council of Flint to agree to disconnect the city from the DWSD, which had supplied high-quality water to Flint residents since 1967, and connect with the KWA instead.
Due to KWA construction delays, however, Snyder and Kurtz ordered the ultimately disastrous long-term use of the polluted Flint River in the interim, falsely claiming that Detroit had refused to negotiate better rates for its Genesee County customers. While the Flint Water Treatment Plant, using the Flint River, has always been a back-up water supply to DWSD, which gets its water from Lake Huron, the plant was never outfitted to operate with river water for more than 20 days, on an emergency basis.
DTE’s Greenwood Energy Center in Avoca, MI is on the proposed Karegnondi line.
VOD reader Peter Bernard wrote, “DTE has been involved in the formation of KWA since the beginning. DTE didn’t need treated water to run its turbines. Was it the demand of DTE for untreated water as soon as Flint withdrew from DWSD that caused Flint to pump untreated water into its supply system? I worked for Detroit Edison as a summer intern 60 years ago and they always thought pure water was an extra expense since super-heated stem automatically purified the water driving the steam turbines.”
In 2011, Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal reported that DTE told the KWA board it was interested in purchasing up to three million gallons of untreated water per day from the Authority for its Greenwood Energy Plant.
“Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright called the news ‘very encouraging’ during a meeting of the KWA Board of Directors today, and said others could follow ‘as more businesses are made aware of (what we are doing and) the lower cost of untreated water,'” Fonger wrote, adding that Wright said KWA would work with DTE.
Map shows KWA pipeline in red, DWSD pipelines in blue.
In 2014, the Bond Buyer magazine gave KWA the Midwest Bond Buyer of the Year award during an elaborate ceremony in New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, for its second sale of $220 million in bonds to finance the pipeline, an intake facility, and two pumping stations.
It earlier sold $35 billion in bonds despite Detroit’s bankruptcy filing.
“Long before Detroit filed its Chapter 9 bankruptcy case in the summer of 2013, Flint and Genesee County, Michigan saw the need to break away from their dependence on the Detroit water system,” the narrator of a video shown at the ceremony said in a disingenuous, factually inaccurate introduction.
“In 2010 they formed the Karegnondi Water Authority, the two governments’ long-term strategy to deliver a more reliable water supply at more reasonable rates. After years of planning and crafting a bond structure with dual backstops to protect investors, the Authority hit the market in early April with its inaugural issue for $220 million in bonds. . . .The governments expect to cover the debt repayments with system revenues, and both put their limited tax GBO payments behind the bonds.”
The narrator said that Genesee County also pledged to cover Flint’s portions of the bonds if it is not able to do so under state emergency management.
Former Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick receive Bond Buyer award in 2004 for disastrous $1.5 billion COPS deal.
“Entering a market where local governments across Michigan faced heightened penalties, the authorities sold the bonds to more than 30 investors and achieved borrowing costs below projections,” the narrator said. “The deal paves the way for the County to trade in annual rate increases of about 11.5 percent for ones closer to five.”
The presentation recalled a similar Bond Buyer award given to former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-CFO Sean Werdlow in 2004, for the disastrous sale of $1.5 billion in “Certificates of Participation,” or “Pension Obligation Bonds,” an amount that ballooned to $2.8 billion with default penalties and interest swaps. Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr cited the deal as one reason for his improperly authorized 2013 Detroit Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing, but never followed through on a lawsuit he filed calling it “void ab initio, illegal and unenforceable.”
Below is the video presented at the Bond Buyer 2014 awards ceremony, on the Karegnondi Water Authority and the bonds involved.
In 2013, Tucker, Young, Jackson and Tull (TYJT), a Detroit-based engineering and consulting company, was contracted by the Michigan Department of Treasury to provide a study of the proposed KWA, contrasting it with the advantages of Flint remaining with the DWSD. The study strongly contradicted claims the Bond Buyer made at the 2014 awards ceremony, and other made in a study contracted by the community of Swartz Creek. (See full TYJT study at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/FLINT-KWA-TYJT-water_report.pdf,)
DWSD spokesman Bill Johnson
“The Flint City Council’s approval of the Genesee County Drain Commission-backed idea to link Flint and a proposed multi-county connector effectively launched the greatest water war in Michigan’s history, “ Bill Johnson, communications head for the DWSD, said in a press release. “The action ignores a credible state-sponsored study that came out against the ill-advised Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) project. And the vote makes no connection to Flint’s fiscal reality. All things considered, the City of Flint is best served by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD).” (See full release at http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/water_war_undermines_flint-dwsd_relations-2013-14.pdf.)
The study concluded that the cheapest and safest option out of eight through 2042 for Flint’s water supply was to provide it directly through an adaptation of DWSD’s Imlay City pumping station, which is closer to Flint. DWSD has always provided water for the area through its Lake Huron Water Treatment Plant at Ft. Gratiot, Michigan, which sends it to the Imlay City station to go to Flint. Flint then supplies it to other regional customers. (See graph below.)
TYJT noted that the KWA proposal did not account for cost overruns on construction contracts, an almost inevitable occurrence, or provide a back-up water supply as does the DWSD for all its customers in the event of failure of the primary supply.
Why did Wright ignore this study? His connections with shady contractors during his tenure as Genesee County Drain Commissioner beginning in 2001, and earlier in his 23 years serving under former Drain Commissioner Anthony Ragnone, are well-known.
Southwest community organizer Denise Hearn leads protest against Synagro’s Detroit boondoogle outside the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant July 31, 2008.
Wright himself formerly owned a water consulting business called Tara/Aqua Management. During his term as Commissioner, he has signed multiple contracts with Synagro Technologies, Inc. for sewage sludge removal, dewatering, and land application at the county’s Linden and Ragnone treatment plants, from 2002 through 2009, according to a 2010 Flint Journal expose by reporter Ron Fonger.
At least two of the Genesee Drain Commission Synagro contracts, in 2003 and 2005, were signed by James Rosendall, former Synagro vice-president of development who went to prison for 11 months, in connection with the Synagro/Carlyle bribery scandal that brought down former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, DWSD head Victor Mercado, and former City Council President Monica Conyers, among other Black city officials.
Synagro VP James Rosendall
Rosendall was the only white who was jailed, while Black officials who refused to act as FBI informants received terms as long as five years.
Judge Avern Cohn barred the defense from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group were not charged in the RICO indictment.
Whatever you do, do not tell anyone the reason why the defense was barred from asking why Synagro and the Carlyle Group was not charged in the RICO indictment was because there was an ongoing investigation into other matters of interest. Sssshhhh.......
Wright was an FBI informant against Conyers’ aide Sam Riddle during the probe. Many officials involved in the probe acted as informants rather than being charged as well.
Synagro was purchased by the insidious Carlyle Group in 2007, one of the largest private equity and alternative investment firms in the world which has extensive ties to the global defense industry.
The Carlyle Group’s board has included politicians from around the world, including former U.S. Presidents George H. W Bush and George W. Bush, and their former cabinet members U.S. Secretary of State James Baker III, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, also former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Arthur Levitt, who served under Pres. Bill Clinton.
It is connected to the Bin Laden family and to former Phillippines dictator Fidel Ramos, among numerous others. Synagro went bankrupt in 2013 and was sold.
The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.
The Alabama-based American Cast Iron Pipe Company, which operates one of the largest ductile iron pipe casting plants in the world, has a contract with a starting cost of $84.1 million, while the Flint-based E & L Construction’s contract for the Imlay City pump station has a starting cost of $11.78 million. All this work duplicates DWSD pipelines and intake and pumping stations already servicing the area.
Pipe for Karegnondi Water Authority is hoisted into Lake Huron.
Recently, Channel 2 reporter Charlie LeDuff interviewed Jeff Wright in a story focusing on the profits made by contractors on the Flint water switch. They included Kurtz campaign contributors AECOM, with $18 billion in revenues in 2015, and the engineering firm hired to ensure that the switch to Flint River water would be safe, LAN (Lockwood, Andrews and Norman).
LeDuff reports that firm’s original contract began at $140,000 and ballooned later to $4 million, despite the fact that it did NOTHING to ensure the safety of the city’s water.
(VOD takes issue with LeDuff’s initial contention that Flint ratepayers decided to opt for the KWA because they were paying “outrageous” rates to Detroit. That is a claim that has been made by DWSD’s wholesale customers in six counties for decades, never with an addendum that the communities involved add their own surcharges to the wholesale rates. LeDuff also appears to conclude at the end that water flowing through Flint’s pipes now from DWSD is safe, which it will not be until complete replacement of the corroded infrastructure. )
Lansing — Prosecutors involved in Flint's water investigation believe someone illegally provided confidential interview transcripts featuring aides to former Gov. Rick Snyder to a media outlet.
The KWA’s current major contractors include the omnipresent L D’Agostini & Sons, based in Macomb, at a starting cost $24.6 million for the pipeline and $11.06 million for the intake station on Lake Huron. D’Agostini earlier sued the DWSD because it was barred from further contracting with the department after its involvement in the RICO indictment of Kilpatrick et. al. was exposed. D’Agostini previously did 70 percent of its business with the Department.