I am sure this is how Nick Lyon is feeling about his case which is now in its 7th year.
In the ongoing seven plus year political prosecution of former Michigan DHS director Nick Lyon in the Flint Water Crisis, Lyon won a small victory in court this week. Genesee County Circuit Court Judge, Elizabeth Kelly, has ordered state prosecutors to continue work on protocols for developing a taint team to review documents tied to the Flint water crisis criminal cases. However, in the short term, Kelly will allow for a pause by the prosecutors in filtering additional materials related to the cases until the Michigan Court of Appeals rules on her actions.
The taint team is a standard process in which independent legal experts are brought in to ensure no documents that are protected under attorney client privilege are provided to the prosecution. In this case, documents used by lawyers from the Attorney General’s office to defend the state, including Lyons, in the civil case of the Flint Water Crisis, were subsequently provided to the prosecuting attorneys in the Attorney General’s office who are now prosecuting Lyon and others in criminal cases.
In a previous filing with Judge Kelly, Assistant AG Prosecutor Kessel argued that it would take 3 years and 48 million dollars to meet the order of Judge Kelly to use a taint team. The AG office appears to be asking the judge to have pity on the prosecution team for their screw-up. Fortunately, she is putting Lyon’s and other’s legal rights ahead of the work required by a taint team.
Don’t feel sorry for the AG office, as previously indicated in prior reports, AG Nessel and Special Prosecutor Hammoud were warned twice by their own AG office staff that the 20 million AG documents they seized from the civil case contained attorney-client privilege documents. AG Nessel and Hammoud knowingly seized it anyway. Now they are paying a price that will be funded by the taxpayers of Michigan if AG Nessel continues to move forward on this case.
As I have said multiple times in this blog over the last year, this case has no business in the criminal courts. Second guessing the decisions of leaders because you felt they made a bad decision is not a crime. This case has been settled for over $600 million in our civil court. That should be the end of this. Unfortunately, AG Nessel sees the prosecution of Lyon, former governor Snyder, and others as an opportunity to appease her political supporters. You can expect her to continue this political prosecution up until the election in November 2022. In the meantime, the taxpayers continue to pay attorney fees for both the prosecution and defendants in this case. The only winners are the attorneys.
Pray for peace and cool heads. What are you doing to stop the violence? Get vaccinated and get your booster.
Orchid of the Day: I am not in the mood to give out any orchids today. Watching Michigan’s men’s basketball team blow a 17-point lead with 12 minutes to go will do that to you.
Onion of the Day: The Michigan Men’s Basketball team for blowing a 17-point lead to Indiana with 12 minutes remaining in the game. The loss puts their NCAA tournament bid in jeopardy.
Quote of the Day: “We are disappointed that it has taken this long to make progress on this obvious and necessary step that has been holding up discovery in this matter for months. It is standard practice for a prosecutor who came into possession of attorney-client privileged documents to immediately implement an independent taint team to search for and remove such documents because the prosecutor is not entitled to possess or review these confidential communications between the defendants and their attorneys.” Ron DeWaard, attorney for former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon.
Video of the Day: Imagine, John Lennon and the Yoko Ono Band