On Tuesday, state prosecutors charged four former government employees with conspiring to violate safety rules for their roles in Flint's water crisis. As a result of an April 2014 decision by one of the controversial unelected, state-appointed emergency managers, Flint residents were exposed to dangerously high levels of lead via the city water supply. The city water supply was changed from the Flint River to Lake Huron, which caused highly corrosive water to leach lead from the city pipes into the public water supply.

Michigan prosecutors are now assigning at least part of the blame to Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, former city emergency managers, as well as Howard Croft, a public works superintendent, and Daugherty Johnson, a utilities manager. At a press conference in Flint, Attorney General Bill Schuette said the former officials continued to operate the city's water treatment plan when it was not safe to do so. "Flint was a casualty of arrogance, disdain and failure of management, an absence of accountability," Schuette said.

Reuters reported:

"Some critics have called for high-ranking state officials, including Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, to be charged. Snyder has said he believed he had not done anything criminally wrong. Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton said by email that the state remains committed to helping Flint recover."