(WXYZ) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released a 100-plus-page report Tuesday on the Flint water crisis, more than a decade after the man-made catastrophe began, explaining why no one was ever convicted in the case.
Watch Randy Wimbley's video report:
Nessel called the crisis "a man-made tragedy of epic proportion" and wrote that a Michigan Supreme Court ruling barring one-person grand jury indictments derailed criminal prosecutions. But critics say those setbacks were ultimately of her own making.
Melissa Mays, a Flint resident and victim, pushed back sharply on Nessel's conclusions.
"The fact that the beginning of her statement today and the memo in the foreword saying that justice will never see the light of day—or residents of Flint, our ability to see justice was stolen from us—she stole it from us," Mays said.
Nessel defended her office's reliance on the one-person grand jury process.
"When I put myself into the shoes of the prosecutors entrusted with this case, even in hindsight, I could never have imagined a scenario where there would be an issue in using the one-person grand jury, or one in which the Supreme Court would remove this tool from prosecutors' toolboxes," Nessel said.
Critics point out that prosecutors originally took a different path. Todd Flood, the original special prosecutor, made headway without a one-person grand jury, securing charges against 15 state and local officials. After taking office in 2019, Nessel fired Flood. Her new prosecution team scrapped those original charges to start from scratch using the one-person grand jury statute — a decision residents pleaded against.
"Attorney General Nessel's team ignored us when we said, 'Please don't fire Todd Flood. Please don't fire the team, please don't start over.' For the love of God, please do not start over. But they went ahead with it. They said, 'We know what's best' — which is the same thing government told us when they switched our water," Mays said.
Nessel says she chose to lead the civil litigation defense rather than the criminal prosecution when she took office in order to secure some justice for victims. That effort resulted in a $600 million settlement — the largest in state history. But Mays says some victims have yet to see a dime, and for others the payouts are an insult to their suffering.
"She keeps touting this $600 million lawsuit — they only gave my son $2,000 for his brain damage. Really? A co-worker is going to get $400 for his damages. What is that?" Mays said.
The full report is available here: https://www.michigan.gov/ag/-/media/Project/Websites/AG/releases/2026/August/Flint-Water-Crisis-Final-Report-August-2026-Redacted.pdf?rev=8e81cf459dec440da5eb7033ccdffda7&hash=03CE0460A6C29885CBABAC6584FD07B6.
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