Michigan’s chief medical officer is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and misconduct, filed Monday by the Flint Water Crisis investigation’s special prosecutor.
Chief medical officer Eden Wells’s hearing was supposed to begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday, but it was delayed after her legal team was made aware of the two new charges, The Detroit News reports.
“We were told only [Monday] morning that [special prosecutor Todd Flood] proposes to file two additional charges,” Wells’s attorney Jerold Lax told the Associated Press. “And under the circumstances, we reluctantly agreed to an adjournment so as to be able to prepare.”
Flood decided to bring the new charges after “revelations” were revealed during testimony last week in the preliminary exam hearing against state Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, The Detroit News reports.
“I really can’t get into the details of it but I think we’d be derelict if we didn’t charge her,” Flood said. “Based on new review of other documents testimony that came out last week, we believe that discovery put us in this place.”
Wells is the sixth current or former government official charged with involuntary manslaughter following the Flint Water Crisis. During the crisis, poisoned water from deteriorating lead pipes resulted in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Flint, Mich., that caused at least a dozen deaths, Reuters reports.
Wells faces 15 years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. She already faced charges of lying to the police and obstruction of justice, according to Reuters.
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