Former Attorney General Frank Kelley
Frank Kelley: "It disrupts the whole justice system."
Former Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley, who held the office for 37 years, is speaking out against charges Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed in the Flint water crisis.
Specifically, the 92-year-old Kelley says it's wrong to file involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office charges against Nick Lyon, the director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, for his role in the Flint mess.
"When charges are wrongfully made, it disrupts the whole justice system. I had an obligation to speak out," Kelley tells the Detroit Free Press. "It’s wrong for this particular charge to be brought against Nick Lyon, who’s got nothing to do with making the decision, it’s just wrong, and he won’t escape the stigma of it even if he’
's found innocent."
The charges involve the Legionnaires' disease outbreak in the Flint area that resulted in 12 deaths after the city's water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014. Lyon is accused of causing the death of Robert Skidmore on Dec. 13, 2015, by failing to alert the public about a foreseeable outbreak of the disease as a result of the city's tainted water supply. It's a 15-year felony, the Freep writes.
"Attorney General Schuette has great respect for General Kelley, and while sometimes prosecutors disagree, we can all agree that Flint families deserve justice," spokeswoman Andrea Bitely tells the Freep.
Kelley tells the paper he has known Lyons since cjoildhoopd. Lyons' mother worked in Kelley’s office decades ago.
Early this month, state Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan urged Schuette in an opinion piece for the Free Press to drop the charges against Lyon. She wrote:
As the former director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, I have a unique perspective on public policy, the law and service to the vulnerable people of Michigan. That’s why I am saddened and disheartened to hear of the charges Attorney General Bill Schuette has brought against MDHHS Director Nick Lyon.
I know Nick very well from my days as director. I worked closely with Nick in state government and know him as a hard working, decent and honest person who has dedicated his life and career to serving the people of Michigan. To think he would intentionally harm anyone, or ignore his duty as director is beyond my comprehension. I worked with Nick on some of the most sensitive and crucial decisions in the service of the vulnerable and mentally ill in Michigan and he never let me down.
