FLINT, MI -- Five Michigan Department of Environmental Quality employees won't face their preliminary examinations related to the Flint water crisis until 2018.

Genesee District Judge Jennifer Manley advised attorneys for the five to prepare for the exam on Jan. 8, the first legal hurdle for special prosecutor Todd Flood in these prosecutions.

During a preliminary exam, prosecutors must call witnesses and present evidence to establish that there is probable cause to believe that crimes they have alleged occurred and that the defendants are the people who committed them.

If Manley finds that's the case, the DEQ employees move to Genesee Circuit Court to face the charges and possible trial.

DEQ officials facing charges of criminal wrongdoing related to Flint's water emergency are Liane Shekter-Smith, former director of Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance; Stephen Busch, former district supervisor in the same office; Adam Rosenthal, environmental quality analyst; Patrick Cook, specialist for the department's Community Drinking Water Unit; and Mike Prysby, an engineer in the Office of Drinking Water and Municipal Assistance.

"The massive amount of material (that attorneys for the five just) received -- they need time to go through that material," Flood said during a hearing Monday, Sept. 18.

Just last week, the special prosecutor turned over an additional 60,000 pages of discovery documents, which he said he expects will be the last material he turns over to defense attorneys for the DEQ employees in advance of their exams.

"I was really hoping we could pick a 2017 date, but I know you all tried to do that," Manley said.

Flood has notified Busch, who currently faces six criminal charges, and Shekter-Smith, who currently faces two, that he will add charges of involuntary manslaughter to each.

Prysby has been charged with six counts, including two charges of misconduct in office and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors claim the district engineer knowingly mislead federal regulatory officials and others about Flint water and manipulated water monitoring reports.

Cook is charged with four counts, including felonies of misconduct in office and conspiracy. His approval gave the city of Flint the final OK to power-up the Flint water treatment plant to treat Flint River water in 2014, prosecutors say.

Rosenthal faces three felonies and one misdemeanor, including misconduct in office and tampering with evidence. Prosecutors claim he was warned by Flint water officials that they were not ready for operations when the treatment plant was put into full-time service for the first time in decades.

The first Flint water defendant scheduled to face a preliminary exam is Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, who is set to appear before Judge David Goggins Thursday, Sept. 21.

Lyon faces an involuntary manslaughter charge and is the highest-ranking state official charged so far in the water crisis prosecutions.

Other preliminary exams are scheduled for Dr. Eden Wells, the state's chief medical executive, on Oct. 9; DHHS officials Nancy Peeler and Robert Scott on Nov. 13; and former emergency managers Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose and former city of Flint officials Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson on Dec. 5.