Putting austerity on trial, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Tuesday announced criminal charges against four high-level officials for their role in causing the Flint water crisis, including former city manager Darnell Earley, who made the budget-driven decision to switch the city's water supply to the dangerously corrosive Flint River.
"All too often, there's been a fixation on finances and balance sheets," said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. "This fixation cost lives."
Earley, as well as another former emergency manager Gerald Ambrose—both appointees of Republican Governor Rick Snyder—are being charged with false pretense and conspiracy to commit false pretense, which each carry a 20-year sentence, as well as misconduct in office and willful neglect of duty.
"There are some who would simply wish that the problems in Flint would go quietly away, and there are voices out there who hope the poisoning of the water would be swept under the rug," Schuette said during a Tuesday morning press conference. "These voices hope to simply blame nameless bureaucrats, call it a day and move on."
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