FLINT, Mich. (CN) ---The judge overseeing the criminal case against former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder for his role in cost-cutting efforts that resulted in the Flint water contamination crisis agreed Tuesday to stay all pending deadlines as a challenge over venue and jurisdiction is appealed.
“This case is going to take a long time anyway,” Genesee County District Judge William Crawford said in a hearing Tuesday morning.
Madelaine Lane of Warner Norcross + Judd represented Snyder at the hearing and argued that if he wins the appeal to change venue and jurisdiction, any other decision by the court would be moot.
“It would be a waste of this court’s time and taxpayer resources to continue litigating a matter that would ultimately be dismissed,” she said.
Lane added it was not a simple case, citing the use of a one-man grand jury to bring the indictment and the amount of press conferences held by the prosecution.
“In my experience, that doesn’t happen…in criminal matters typically seen in this court," she said.
Lane also said that prosecutors told her to expect more than 21 million documents as evidence, which she tried to put into context by suggesting it would take more than 8,400 banker's boxes to hold it all if it was printed out.
Based on that volume, Lane said the prosecution was nowhere near prepared to go to trial.
“The government waited nearly six years to bring this case, it can certainly wait a few more months,” she said.
Prosecutor Bryant Osikowicz did not put up much of a fight. He said the stay was not necessary but the state would respect the court’s decision.
“If your honor believes that a stay is warranted now, the people would respect that decision,” he said. “We just think it’s premature.”
Crawford was still concerned about the voluminous amount of evidence, but Lane assured him that she was not asking for the discovery process to be halted, just the deadlines.
“I do have concerns [about the evidence], but I do also believe in judicial economy,” the judge said. "If it goes the distance, this case will be here two or three years, whether it’s my or another court it’s going to be a lot to handle.”
A motion to dismiss the criminal case, in which Snyder is charged with two counts of willful neglect of duty, was denied by Crawford on March 18. It was debated for weeks as Crawford was initially not certain of his authority in the sprawling scandal but ultimately sided with prosecution.
“Since the only county listed, Genesee County, is within the grand juror’s jurisdiction, multi-county jurisdiction is not invoked and therefore the motion to quash is denied,” he said at the time.
Another one of Snyder’s lawyers, Brian Lennon of Warner Norcross + Judd, had asked the judge to consider if Genesee Circuit Court Judge David Newblatt, serving as the one-man grand jury, had the authority to return an indictment for crimes that allegedly occurred outside Genesee County, where Flint is located.
“A one-person grand jury in Genesee County cannot hand down indictments for alleged criminal acts…that occurred outside the county,” the attorney asserted.
Lennon cited a 2019 ruling from the Michigan Supreme Court over a venue dispute and said the charges should be filed in the county where the alleged crimes occurred, in this case in Ingham County, where Snyder’s offices in Lansing were located.
“Judge Newblatt evaluated evidence and then concluded there was probable cause that a crime was committed in the city of Flint and the defendant committed that crime,” Osikowicz, the state's attorney, countered.
