Former Gov. Rick Snyder appeared in a Flint, Michigan, court Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty to two charges of willful neglect of duty — misdemeanor charges filed on the eve of a major announcement later Thursday in the Flint water crisis criminal investigation.
Snyder, 62, wore a navy blazer, a light blue collared shirt without a necktie and a gray face mask for the court appearance. He was seated next to his attorney, Brian Lennon, in a Genesee County jail booth as they appeared for the hearing via Zoom.
Snyder spoke sparingly during the hearing. His only words were “yes, your honor” in response to Odette’s question if he lives in the state. Snyder did not say which city or town.
During the arraignment before Genesee District Court Judge Christopher Odette, Attorney General Dana Nessel's office sought to restrict Snyder's travel during the case by surrendering his passport because Snyder is a "man of means" with international contacts.
But Odette only ordered Snyder not to leave the state without the court's permission.
"I'm not going to have him surrender his passport on a misdemeanor charge," Odette said.
Odette also set a personal recognizance bond of $10,000 on each charge for Snyder.
Nessel filed two charges of willful neglect of duty against Snyder on Wednesday, a day before her office is set to announce new details in the Flint water crisis investigation.
Genesee County District Court records show the charges stem from an alleged offense on April 25, 2014 — the day Flint began using the Flint River as its new water source.
Each charge Snyder faces is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine of up to $1,000.
Snyder is the first Michigan governor or former governor to be charged with a crime for alleged conduct while in office.
In 1975, former Democratic Gov. John Swainson was indicted for bribery while a member of the Michigan Supreme Court. Swainson, who was Michigan governor in 1961 and 1962, was later acquitted of the bribery charge but convicted of perjury. He died in 1994.
Nessel, a Democrat elected in 2018, is scheduled to make a major announcement Thursday in the state's criminal investigation into the Flint water crisis. Nessel's office said the outcome of the state's criminal investigation would be discussed, but it did not release any details about who may be charged or what the nature of the charges could be.
New charges in the Flint criminal case mark a dramatic escalation of the long-dormant prosecution. Critics had once chided criminal investigators for only bringing charges against lower-ranked local and state officials while bypassing Snyder. But some legal experts believe convicting a former governor for his conduct in office could be a substantial courtroom challenge.
Snyder, a Republican who has been out of office for two years, was governor when state-appointed managers in Flint switched the city’s water to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-saving step while a pipeline was being built to Lake Huron. The water, however, was not treated to reduce corrosion — a disastrous decision affirmed by state regulators that caused lead to leach from old pipes and poison the distribution system used by nearly 100,000 residents.
Also in court Thursday morning was former Flint Department of Public Works Director Howard Croft.
Croft is facing the same charges as Snyder — two counts of willful neglect of duty by a public officer.
Seated next to his attorney from a booth at the Genesee County jail, Croft appeared for his arraignment via Zoom in Odette's courtroom.
The judge reviewed the charges and set the conditions of his release: a $10,000 personal bond for each count with some light restrictions on his travel.
Croft, 55, of Grand Blanc, does not have to surrender his passport, but he cannot leave the state without the court's permission, Odette said. Croft is not prohibited from discussing the case with other defendants.
Croft's attorney, Alexander Rusek, stressed Croft's deep ties to the Flint community at the arraignment. first job at a flint McDonald's worked for General Motors before working for the city of Flint.
Rusek noted that Croft was out on bond for 911 days and appeared for all court hearings when he was similarly charged in 2016 by the attorney general's office in its first set of charges in the case, which Nessel eventually dismissed in an effort to restart and improve the investigation.
"The probability of conviction, I believe in this matter, is low," Rusek said.
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(Staff writer Paul Egan contributed to this report.)
