Flint water prosecutors asked the Michigan Supreme Court to keep their criminal cases against nine former government officials afloat on Wednesday, May 4, defending their use of a one-person grand jury to issue indictments in the cases more than a year ago.
Justices heard arguments from attorneys for former Gov. Rick Snyder and others Wednesday, contending they were denied their cons utional rights when a single grand juror indicted them, and an attorney for former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon went a step further.
Former state Solicitor General John Bursch said the charges must be dismissed because the state Cons ution prohibits a single grand juror from both investigating and charging the officials with crimes.
Citizen grand juries are rarely utilized in Michigan and the use of a one-person grand jury, as was done in Flint, is even rarer, attorneys for those charged with water crisis crimes have said.
Genesee Circuit Judge David J. Newblatt served as the one-judge grand jury in the water crisis cases and heard testimony throughout 2020 before issuing indictments against Snyder and eight others in January 2021.