FLINT, MI -- More than 100 days ago, Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud stood in a union hall crowded with discouraged Flint residents, defending her decision to dismiss all pending criminal charges related to the city’s water crisis.

Hammoud, who was put in charge of the Flint investigation by state Attorney General Dana Nessel in January, pledged to start a new probe rather than continue the old one, digging deeper into unseen evidence and holding those responsible accountable for any crimes.

“We will continue to show you we’re not here just to give you words ...,” she said before the meeting was called to a close with residents still waiting to speak. "The show is over. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

But in the months since that June evening, there has been little in the way of information or updates from the solicitor general, and no new criminal charges.

By contrast, former special prosecutor Todd Flood had filed criminal charges against three city and state employees less than 100 days after former Attorney General Bill Schuette announced he would lead the first criminal investigation.

A spokeswoman for Hammoud declined to comment on the status of the the current probe in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal, saying prosecutors are “not in a position to give a comment or update on the investigation.”

Not even high-ranking public officials like state Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich, D-Flint, have been briefed by the Department of Attorney General since that report to Flint residents.

It was Ananich and state Rep. John Cherry, D-Flint, who introduced bills in August designed to give Hammoud more time to file charges against emergency managers or other local or state officials involved in the water crisis by extending the statute of limitations for the crime of criminal misconduct.

Nessel endorsed the legislation in September after Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said they could face problems filing charges of misconduct in Flint, partly because they needed more time to review newly discovered evidence.

Without a misconduct charge, prosecutions on other charges could also be in jeopardy because it was “the misconduct that caused the manslaughter," Hammoud has said.

The solicitor general had announced in April that prosecutors had discovered millions of documents related to the water crisis, including a list of state employees titled “Phones/Wiped,” in the basement of a state-owned building -- records that needed to be reviewed before criminal cases could move forward against former state emergency managers Darnell Earley, Gerald Ambrose, top state health officials Nick Lyon and Dr. Eden Wells, and others.

Nessel complained during her campaign for attorney general that the investigation by Flood that produced those charges amounted to “politically charged show trials” and has removed herself from the current criminal investigation in order to work without a conflict of interest on civil cases related to the water crisis.

The Ananich-Cherry bills have been referred to committee and discussed by leaders of the House and Senate as well as the Governor’s Office, said Ananich, who said he’s been given no information on any developments in the current Flint investigation.

“As long as activity is happening ... I think people want to know," Ananich said. “All this money has been spent and ... I think people expect someone to be brought to justice.”

The state senator said he’s “more than happy to say, I’m glad they did what they did” if the quiet strategy works, but said it’s not reassuring to Flint residents, who have little trust in government regardless of which political party runs the attorney general’s office.

Haamoud was assigned to lead the Flint water criminal investigation the day after Nessel appointed her solicitor general for the state. She fired Flood three months later, saying he had failed to “fully and properly” pursue potentially importance evidence in criminal cases tied to the Flint water crisis."

At the town hall meeting in Flint in June, Hammoud and Worthy said they needed to review some 20 million records -- information they said Flood collected through subpoenas but had neglected to look at.

Worthy said she couldn’t guarantee residents there would be more arrests, but said prosecutors would “let the facts and evidence lead us.”

Laura Gillespie MacIntyre, who attended the town hall meeting, said she wants more information from the new prosecution team.

“We just kind of feel like we are being stonewalled,” Gillespie MacIntyre said. “I’m getting increasingly frustrated and angry.”

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver did not respond to requests for comment from MLive, but state Rep. Sheldon Neeley, D-Flint, said he remains optimistic the state’s current investigation will yield results.

“I believe there are people with criminal culpability, (and) I’m optimistically holding out hope," said Neeley, who supports the extension of the statue of limitations legislation announced by Cherry and Ananich.

“They haven’t shared any information with me, so I don’t know what they are doing,” he said of the current investigation.

Neeley is running to unseat Weaver as Flint mayor in the November election.

The investigation into criminal wrongdoing related to the Flint water crisis started during Schuette’s time as attorney general.

He announced the start of an investigation on Jan. 15, 2016, just 10 days after former Gov. Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency in the city because of the contamination of its water system.

Bacteria, lead and total trihalomethanes thrived in Flint’s water system after the city’s water source was abruptly changed to the Flint River on April 25, 2014.

Designed to save millions of dollars over a short period of time, the switch occurred while Flint was being run by a state-appointed emergency financial manager and its water system was overseen by state regulators.

Two emergency managers, city of Flint utility officials, and employees of the state Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Environmental Quality were among those initially charged with crimes, and seven of those 15 defendants accepted plea agreements -- negotiated by Flood -- that included neither jail time nor fines. Three of the eight remaining defendants had their cases bound over to Genesee Circuit Court for jury trials before they were dismissed by Hammoud.

Flood has said he gave “everything I had to give to this case" and said cases "of official wrongdoing and betrayal of public trust (have) been prosecuted with the utmost attention to the professional standards that justice demands.”

Hammoud’s office has not given any indication of the status of its work, but in September it became clear prosecutors were working.

MLive reported then that the state had turned down requests from public employees for no-cost attorneys when they were facing questioning by Flint water prosecutors, a practice that cost taxpayers millions of dollars during the Snyder administration.

Nessel’s office made the determination that it is not within the state’s authority to provide attorneys to employees unless they have been charged with a crime.

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State cuts off free attorneys for employees questioned by Flint water prosecutors

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