EXCLUSIVE: Flint 6 To Face No State Charges For Town Hall Arrests

On Thursday, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton will announce there will be no misdemeanor or felony state charges brought against six Flint residents arrested at a town hall on April 20th.

The decision by the prosecutor, which he told TYT Politics, can be reviewed by the Flint City Attorney for potential city ordinance violations, comes after a month of uncertainty for the six residents as to whether they’d face prosecution and jail time following their arrests at a church town hall.

“I believe we acted timely and appropriately,” Leyton told TYT Politics Wednesday evening. “Received the reports Monday, read them Tuesday, discussed them Wednesday and made a decision. The city and the county are separate entities. I don’t tell them what to do and vice versa. Nor do I arrest people. We review warrant requests and, and based on the law and circumstances, determine whether to authorize or not.”

As I previously reported, concerns over the arrests developed due to the unusual process surrounding them. As ACLU attorney Gregory Gibbs, who represented five of the six arrested residents, told me, the arrests weren’t by the book.

“What I think is unusual in this case is that the parties were arrested, confined in a jail overnight and released pending further investigation,” Gibbs had told me.

“It is unusual because if they were considered to be so dangerous as to require immediate incarceration, then the usual procedure would be to immediately charge them and bring them before a judge rather than release them the next day pending further investigation.”

Gibbs had sent a letter to Leyton and Interim Flint City Attorney Angela Wheeler on April 27th notifying them the ACLU would represent the residents; Gibbs never received a response.

As one of the only national reporters covering the town hall that night, I observed an aggressive tone set from the beginning by Police Commissioner Tim Johnson, who, in an opening comment, warned that he’d be determining what is and isn’t appropriate conduct for outraged and frustrated poisoned citizens.

“Please don’t be in here trying to disrupt this meeting,” Johnson said at the open of the town hall, adding, “because if you do I’m going to escort you out and I’m only going to take you to the back door and then you’re going to jail. I’m not going to play with nobody tonight.”

Johnson also labeled the lead-poisoned residents who spoke out at the town hall as “agitators” following the arrests — a common phrase label applied by law enforcement and many conservative media figures to protesters, or, in this case, victims of government-made poisoning.

In follow-up interviews by TYT Politics with five members of the Flint 6, a similar pattern emerged: None had a clue what they were arrested for, what stage the supposed investigation into their alleged crimes is at, or when the uncertainty would end.

Although the prosecutor’s office won’t bring charges, he did suggest potential charges aren’t completely off the table.

“The matter should be returned to the Flint City Attorney for her review,” Leyton said. “If she believes misdemeanor charges are warranted, that’s up to her to issue them under city ordinance.”