The former governor of Michigan and several other government officials cannot be compelled to testify in a Flint water crisis civil trial.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that former Gov. Rick Snyder, as well as former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, former Snyder aide Rich Baird, and former Flint Public Works director Howard Croft, can invoke their Fifth Amendment rights.
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The civil trial, the first of its kind relating to the crisis, comes after four children sued two engineering firms for their role in plaguing Flint’s water system, according to Michigan Public Radio.
Thousands of Flint residents were exposed to dangerous levels of lead through the municipal water supply in 2014-15, which contributed to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, after city managers appointed by Snyder switched the city’s water source to the Flint River as a cost-saving measure.
Lawyers for engineering firms Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, hoped to ask Snyder and his associates about the handling of the Flint water crisis beyond what was said in pretrial depositions.
However, with the court ruling, Snyder and others will not be compelled to testify in order to prevent incriminating themselves, overturning U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy’s decision. She rules that they had to testify given that they had testified under oath during the pretrial depositions.
Snyder and the four associates are among nine that were indicted in 2021 after the state launched an investigation into the crisis. Earlier in the year, the state Supreme Court found problems with the one-person grand jury.
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A circuit court judge dismissed felony charges against seven of those indicted in early October. Snyder’s two counts of willful neglect of duty were dropped in August.
The civil case ended in a mistrial in August, with a re-trial scheduled for next year.
