Thursday, a mistrial was granted in a case brought by four children in federal court against two companies that consulted with the city of Flint during its water crisis.
MLive reported that U.S. Magistrate Judge David Grand ruled a mistrial when jurors remained deadlocked after six days of deliberations.
“For the physical and emotional health of the jurors, we don’t believe we can continue with further deliberations,” the jury’s note to Grand said. “Further deliberations will only result in stress and anxiety with no unanimous decision without someone having to surrender their honest convictions solely for the purpose of returning a verdict.”
The jurors spent nearly five months in the federal courtroom in Ann Arbor.
It started in 2014 when the city switched its water source to the Flint River to reduce expenses.
According to MLive, “Flint water treatment plant workers did not treat the river water properly, witnesses in the federal trial testified, and its corrosivity caused lead to leach into tap water.”
In 2017, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed charges against Michigan Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon and Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells in the Flint water probe.
In late June, charges against former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and eight others were dropped by the state’s Supreme Court.
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