Schuette's office OK'd Flint order in alleged tainted-water crimes
LANSING — Attorney General Bill Schuette's office signed off on an environmental order that is central to new criminal charges Schuette filed last week in his Flint drinking water investigation, records show.
In bringing charges on Dec. 20 against two former emergency managers and two former City of Flint public works officials, Schuette and his investigators said a March 2014 administrative consent order issued by the Department of Environmental Quality never should have been issued, because it was based on a "sham" environmental calamity manufactured in part by former Flint emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose and former city officials Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson.
All four defendants face 20-year felonies for conspiracy and false pretenses and have entered not guilty pleas.
One of the three signatures on the administrative consent order (ACO), which the Free Press first scrutinized in a May article, is that of Assistant Attorney General Robert Reichel of the AG's environment, natural resources and agriculture division.
Read more: http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/12/27/schuettes-office-okd-flint-order-alleged-tainted-water-crimes/95867220/
