The latest: an extraordinary rebuke on Tuesday from the state Supreme Court, which unanimously dismissed indictments against former Gov. Rick Snyder and eight others.

The attorney general’s office promises to continue, though hurdles remain even if new charges are brought, including the age of any alleged crimes and a dispute over documents that could take years to resolve.

Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, who has led the investigation since 2019, said she was “committed to seeing this process through.”

An overview of the state of affairs:

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SUPREME COURT?

The court ruled 6-0 that a judge hearing evidence in secret while sitting as a one-person grand jury lacked the power to issue indictments, comparing him with derision to the closed-door justice of the Middle Ages.

The method is so unusual in Michigan that the court said it was apparently never challenged. Prosecutors typically file charges, then lock horns with defense attorneys in front of a judge who decides if there’s enough evidence to go to trial.

Snyder, a Republican, was charged with willful dereliction of duty. Flint managers appointed by him tapped the Flint River for water in 2014 as a new pipeline to Lake Huron was under construction. Lead from the city’s aging pipes infected the system for more than a year because the corrosive water was not properly treated.

Snyder’s health department director Nick Lyon and former Michigan medical director Dr. Eden Wells have been charged with manslaughter in nine deaths related to Legionnaires’ disease. Experts say Flint’s water may have lacked chlorine to fight bacteria.

CAN NEW CHARGES BE LAID?

Yes, in a more traditional way, but defense attorneys will again aggressively challenge them.

There is a six-year time limit for filing misdemeanors, such as the two counts against Snyder and two against former Flint public works chief Howard Croft. Nearly seven years have passed since Snyder admitted in 2015 that Flint had a dangerous lead problem and returned the city to a regional water system.

“That’s going to be a problem for a number of these lawsuits,” said attorney John Bursch, a member of Lyon’s legal team.

Lyon and Wells have been accused of failing to alert the public in a timely manner to the Legionnaires’ outbreak. They deny wrongdoing. The deaths appear to fall within the 10-year limit for filing crimes.

“It is a great injustice to allow politicians – acting in their own interests – to sacrifice public servants who perform their duties in good faith under difficult circumstances,” Lyons said Tuesday, referring to Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat. .

ARE THERE ANY OTHER STICKY ISSUES? :

Millions of documents — and millions of dollars.

When Nessel’s staff took over the Flint water investigation, they seized state government Snyder-era files that apparently included confidential documents and papers protected by attorney-client privilege. lawyer.

Defense lawyers cried foul, insisting the cases should have been reviewed by an independent team. So far they have won in two courts, although prosecutors say it could cost more than $30 million and take years to review the documents, depending on the count.

Cost and time are irrelevant, Lyon’s attorneys said in opposition to a pending appeal to the state Supreme Court.

“No amount of time or money allows the prosecution to retain and use privileged documents against an accused,” attorney Ronald DeWaard wrote.

HAS ANYONE BEEN CONVICTED?

The criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis began in 2016 under then-Attorney General Bill Schuette and Special Prosecutor Todd Flood. No one has been sentenced to prison.

Seven people did not contest the offenses which were eventually erased from their records. Among them were Liane Shekter Smith, who headed the state’s drinking water division, and Stephen Busch, another key water expert.

Flood insisted he was gaining the cooperation of key witnesses and moving on to bigger names, but he was canned after Nessel took over in 2019.

Shekter Smith was the only state employee to be fired because of what happened in Flint. But an arbitrator said she was wrongfully fired in a rush to find a “public scapegoat”, and the state agreed to pay her $300,000.

Busch was paid $522,000 while on furlough before returning to work last November, records show.

Charles Williams II, a Detroit pastor and civil rights activist, said accountability is overdue in Flint.

Families in the majority black city, he added, deserve “truth and justice”.

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