Activist and attorney speak as former governor Rick Snyder faces charges related to Flint Water Crisis

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - On Tuesday, former Michigan governor Rick Snyder was informed that he would be charged after a new investigation of the 2014 Flint water scandal.

Melissa Mays, Flint activist and attorney for Snyder’s senior advisor, hopes the charges are substantial.

“These government officials have lied, and nobody is sitting in jail for it. I mean if I did it, if I poisoned one person...manslaughter” she said. “I mean, if you at it. I mean all the people that have died. If he was honest, all of them. If they were honest with us, we could’ve done the things we needed to do to protect our families.”

According to the Associated Press, Snyder, his health director, and other ex-officials were all notified of the planned prosecution and told to expect initial court appearances soon.

“This is a, I believe, politically-motivated prosecution...to come in now and to try and name people with criminal offenses who have had well intentions in order to somehow mollify or satisfy the thirst for accountable is simply wrong,” said Randall Levine, former senior advisor Rich Bard’s attorney.

But Mays, on the other hand, feels that Snyder’s failure to do what was necessary to fix the water crisis was not by accident.

In fact, she feels that “what was done to us was not a mistake, it was not a little whoopsie misconduct in office, my bad. I didn’t pass this memo. It was an act of cover-up.”

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