DETROIT — The Michigan Court of Appeals on Wednesday batted down a request from Attorney General Dana Nessel's office seeking to reinstate charges against a former state health department director in the Flint water crisis prosecution.
Nessel's office had appealed the dismissal of charges against former Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, arguing that a Genesee County Circuit Court judge who dismissed his case had misinterpreted an order from the Michigan Supreme Court.
But the three-judge panel was not convinced.
"... this court is unable to grant any relief where the circuit court implemented an explicit directive from the Supreme Court," said the Court of Appeals panel comprised of judges Sima Patel, Deborah Servitto and Elizabeth Gleicher.
Lyon's lawyer Chip Chamberlain said the dismissal order from the Supreme Court was clear and shouldn't have been subject to a "foolish" appeal by the state. Lyon and his family are "heartened" the Court of Appeals agreed on the high court's intent, he said.
"Our Supreme Court had made its opinion clear that the one-person grand jury process was improperly used and that the charges had to be dismissed," Chamberlain said. "And that is what the trial court did, dismiss the case."
In a separate ruling related to dismissed charges involving former state employee Nancy Peeler, the appellate panel denied dismissal because it was "not persuaded at this time that the circuit court's interpretation of the Supreme Court's opinion presents no issues appropriate for appellate review."
It's not clear what the decision in the Peeler case means for the other Flint defendants who had their charges dismissed earlier this year.
Genesee County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Kelly in early October dismissed felony charges against seven Flint defendants, including Lyon, after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in June that the one-judge grand jury used to charge the defendants was unconstitutional.
The high court ruled 6-0 that the charges against Lyon should be dismissed because, while the one-judge grand jury law allows judges to issue investigative subpoenas or arrest warrants, it does not permit judges to issue indictments.
The prosecution team, led by Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, had argued the Supreme Court ruling only required the prosecution to conduct preliminary examinations and should not have triggered an all-out dismissal.
Earlier this month, Genesee County Circuit Judge F. Kay Behm also dismissed misdemeanor charges against Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder that were based on the attorney general's office's use of a one-judge grand jury to indict the former governor on willful neglect of duty charges.
Under previous charges authorized in 2017 by then-Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette, Lyon's preliminary examination took months before he was bound over for trial. In June 2019, Nessel's office dropped the first manslaughter cases against Lyon and restarted the Flint water investigation following a three-year prosecution effort by Schuette's team.
Nessel's office issued new indictments against nine individuals in January 2021 after a months-long one-man grand jury process.
