FLINT, MI -- Two former emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to run the city are among four defendants charged today with crimes related to the Flint water crisis.

Darnell Earley, who served as Flint emergency manager at the time the city changed its water source to the Flint River in April 2014, was charged Tuesday, Dec. 20, in Genesee District Court.

Also charged were former emergency manager Jerry Ambrose; Howard Croft, former Department of Public Works director; and Daugherty Johnson, former utilities administrator for the city.

Those charged Tuesday bring the number of defendants tied to the lead-in-water crisis to 13.

Charges against Earley and Ambrose are false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses, willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office. Charges against Johnson and Croft are false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses.

Earley, who testified before the Full House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during congressional hearings in March, has said city workers assured him they could make the Flint River safe to drink before distributing it to citizens two years ago.

State and federal officials have since said that the city failed, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality allowed, the river water to be used without treating it to make it less corrosive to lead in Flint's water distribution system and home plumbing.

In written comments to Congress, Earley has blamed Croft for telling him river water "could and would be treated to meet (DEQ) and (EPA) safe drinking water standards."

Earley's comments have been in contrast to remarks by Mike Glasgow, Flint's utilities director, who raised questions about the city's ability to treat river water before the switch was made.

Glasgow pleaded no contest to a charge of filing false information about lead in Flint water and agreed to cooperate in other in prosecutions as part of a plea agreement reached earlier this year.

Glasgow has said he was following "marching orders" from supervisors to do whatever was necessary to start using the Flint River as soon as possible and warned the DEQ that the city was ill-prepared to begin full-time water treatment for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Glasgow reported to Croft, who resigned as DPW director in November 2015. A life resident of Flint, Croft was appointed to his position by Mike Brown, another emergency manager appointed by Snyder, in 2011.

Tuesday's charges came after eight other current and former state employees as well as Glasgow were also charged with criminal wrongdoing for their roles in the water crisis.

From the DEQ, those facing charges are Stephen Busch, supervisor in the agency's district office; Liane Shekter-Smith, former chief of the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance; Michael Prysby, district engineer; Adam Rosenthal, a water quality analyst who worked for Shekter-Smith; and Patrick Cook, specialist for the department's Community Drinking Water Unit.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services employees charged by Schuette's office are Nancy Peeler, director of the Program for maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting; and Robert Scott, data manager for the department's Healthy Homes and Lead Prevention Program.

Like Glasgow, former DHHS state epidemiologist Corinne Miller agreed to a plea deal in exchange for her cooperation in the investigation.