A judge is expected to decide Monday whether the head of the state health department should face trial on charges related to Flint’s water crisis.
Nick Lyon is the director of the Department of Health and Human Services. He was indicted more than a year ago on charges of involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office.
In a preliminary hearing that has lasted for months, prosecutors have laid out their case against Lyon, alleging he failed to respond to a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in 2014 and 2015. At least a dozen people died of the pneumonia-like illness. Dozens more were hospitalized.
But Lyon’s defense attorneys have raised questions about credibility of the state’s evidence and witnesses.
Lyon is one of 15 current and former government officials criminally charged as part of the Flint water crisis investigation.
Four defendants have reached plea deals with prosecutors. One defendant waived his preliminary hearing.
