The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) announced Oct. 25 that a prosecution team, led by Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud, plans to appeal Judge Elizabeth Kelly's Oct. 6 decision to dismiss criminal charges against seven former state officials indicted in connection with the Flint water crisis.
Judge Kelly dismissed the charges against former Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, former MDHHS medical executive Eden Wells, former MDHHS employee Nancy Peeler, former Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s aides Jarrod Agen and Richard Baird, and former Flint emergency managers Gerald Ambrose and Darnell Earley.
The ruling was not related to misdemeanor charges against former Governor Snyder, but those were also dropped in the separate case because Nessel and Hammoud pursued both matters using the "single grand juror" process. Single grand jurors, Kelly ruled, cannot under Michigan law be both prosecutor and jury.