DETROIT — Genesee County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Kelly on Tuesday dismissed felony charges against seven state officials charged in relation to the Flint water crisis.
The dismissal eliminates charges based on a Michigan Supreme Court ruling in June that the one-man grand jury used to charge the defendants was unconstitutional.
As a result of that decision, the indictments issued against six defendants are "invalid" and the charging process "void," Kelly wrote.
The order applies to charges against former state health director Nick Lyon; former state medical executive Eden Wells; former Gov. Rick Snyder's adviser Richard Baird and communications director Jarrod Agen; former Flint emergency managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley; and state health department employee Nancy Peeler.
The circuit court order does not apply to Snyder, whose charges are misdemeanors and handled at the district court level. A one-man grand jury indicted Snyder on two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty.
"If the people seek future charges against defendants, they must follow one of the proper charging procedures outlined by the Supreme Court," Kelly wrote.
The judge did not weigh in on a request for future charges to be barred against the defendants based on the argument that the statute of limitations ran out for those charges to be considered.
Any such determination, Kelly wrote, "is premature because defendants' request is anticipating future charges, which may or may not be brought by the people."
"It is undisputed that the scope of this court's duty on remand is 'to comply strictly with the mandate of the appellate court according to its true intent and meaning,'" Kelly wrote. "In other words, this court is bound by the Michigan Supreme Court's decision as a matter of law."
