The following update is being provided by Jim Haveman, former Michigan DHS director under Engler and Snyder. Please feel free to share this post with others. Please feel free to let me know how you feel about AG Nessel’s handling of this case. Will AG Nessel apply the same standards against Governor Whitmer for her handling of Covid-19 cases in nursing homes? Let me know how you feel about tax payer dollars being spent on a criminal case which has already been settled in civil court for $640 million. Why is McLaren Health System not being charged, when all the patients who died from the Legionella outbreak were previous patients at McLaren?
June 17,2021
This is the thirteenth update regarding Director Lyon since he was charged the second time in January,2021.
4 years ago this week Director Lyon found out from AG Bill Schutte’s twitter account that he was being charged with manslaughter regarding Legionella in Flint. No courtesy call to Director Lyon’s attorneys, just a politically motivated twitter announcement. AG Schutte had hired Special Prosecutor Todd Flood in 2016 to investigate the Flint water and Legionella outbreaks in Flint.
On June 12,2019 all the charges against Director Lyon and the other defendants were dropped by the AG Dana Nessel and Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud. They were dropped “without prejudice” which means they have to right to bring the charges back at another time.
I still believe at that time Director Lyon’s trial judge, Judge Farah had raised enough questions of the merits of the charges that if the AG hadn’t intervened Judge Farah would have tossed Director Lyon’s case out of his court.
AG Nessel proudly announced the firewall between her civil settlement side and the criminal side lead by Fadwa Hammoud. Fadwa Hammoud brought in Kym Worthy who is the Prosecutor in Wayne County to assist. They assembled a team of over 30 attorneys and investigators to go after Director Lyon and others again. During 2020 they used a secretive one sided single judge Grand Jury in Flint.
All 3 of them ( Nessel, Hammoud and Worthy) were at the very public news conference on January 14,2021 to announce 9 manslaughter charges (135 years in prison) against Director Lyon. At that hearing Director Lyon and the others were publicly tried, prosecuted and found guilty. Director Lyon had to post a $200,000 bond, surrender his passport and was barred from out of state travel. How insulting was that? The injustice that the Lyon family has endured for 6 years must come to an end and soon!
Special Prosecutor Todd Flood was fired in April, 2019.
To this day Director Lyon and the other defendants have not received evidence of the charges. A hearing is scheduled for June 24,2021 by a judge in Flint to get a status report. The transcripts of the Grand Jury testimony have yet to be produced.
This Stealth Political Prosecution of Director Lyon drags on and it’s been this way for 6 years.
You all know Director Lyon, He is honest, respectable and incapable of doing what he is being charged with by AG Dana Nessel. My major issues with the unfounded grounds for the charges against Director Lyon, Dr Edith Wells and others are as follows:
1. Use of a one-man grand jury to bring charges. It is one sided and biased and those being charged had no say in the proceedings. Fadwa Hammoud said it was used to save costs. In reality, it was used to sway public perception of wrong doing on the defendants part.
2. AG Nessel publicly announcing the charges on January 14,2021 and providing zero evidence of the charges since that date.
3. AG Nessel spending 4-6 million dollars annually of tax payers money to investigate Director Lyon and others with no new evidence provided.
4. AG Nessel not respecting her firewall between the civil and criminal Flint cases. She met with Fadwa Hammoud who is managing the criminal side 344 times in 2 years and 10 days.
5. McLaren Hospital in Flint according to the 2019 CDC report has had a Legionella problem with their water since 2008. The MDHHS received that letter in December, 2019. When MDHHS informed McLaren of the report in 2020 the response was watered down and its was deemed to be routine. CDC reported Legionella was still an issue in 2019. 6. AG Dana Nessel’s Civil attorney’s had defended and cleared Director Lyon of any civil responsibility in Flint but the criminal side of her office is charging him.
7. Of the adults Director Lyon is charged with killing, all of them spent part of their exposure time at Mclaren Hospital.
8. McLaren hospital is totally immune from further prosecution by contributing 20 million to AG Dana Nessel’s Flint civil settlement of 641 Million. Of that amount attorneys are requesting 200 Million in fees.
9. Solicator General Hammoud’s clumsy handling of the criminal case by not using a taint team. This is significant for a taint team is composed of individuals who are not involved in an investigation. There job is to prevent investigators from seeing information that could taint evidence, such as information protected by attorney-client privilege. The AG office is just now beginning to electronically transfer 20 million pages of what they claim is discovery. To date thousands of pages of the defendant’s attorney-privileged information has been transferred. Some of it not even related to Flint.
10. AG Dana Nessel has mailed out fundraising letters that slander Governor Synder, Director Lyon and others.
11. AG Nesssls former business partner Chris Kessel was hired to work on the AG’s Flint investigation.
12. All of AG Schutte’s and Nessel’s criminal shenanigans over the past 6 years have destroyed the confidence of state employees to make the tough decisions they need to make. It offers them zero confidence their work will be respected and protected from prosecution. I sat in the Director’s chair in Lansing for 14 years and I am fully aware of the tough decisions that need to be made that impact the public. If these cases are successful it will open up significant prosecution of state elected officials and employees in all areas.
13. How come only certain people were charged with criminal activity. Genesee County Health Department knew about the Legionella outbreaks as did the federal government.
14.If these criminal cases go to trial in Flint there is no way a fair trial will be had by the defendants.
I continued be deeply troubled by AG Nessel and her political desires. I have always believed these Flint prosecutions were trumped up political charges and I have seen nothing to sway me from my original opinion.
Jim.
Stay safe. Wash your hands regularly. Social distance. Wear your mask properly. Schedule your vaccine.
Orchid of the Day: The U.S. Supreme Court for their latest decision supporting the Affordable Care Act.
A Second Orchid of the Day: Jim Haveman, for caring so much about Nick Lyon and keeping us informed about the ill advised and politically motivated legal case that AG Nessel is waging against Nick Lyon and others.
Quote of the Day: “Whatever the act’s dubious history in this court, we must assess the current suit on its own terms. And, here, there is a fundamental problem with the arguments advanced by the plaintiffs in attacking the act — they have not identified any unlawful action that has injured them.” Justice Clarence Thomas
A Second Quote of the Day: “This ruling reaffirms what we have long known to be true: the Affordable Care Act is here to stay,” former President Obama after today’s Supreme Court ruling.