Jury hung in Flint water crisis civil trial, mistrial declared – By Kayla Ruble (The Detroit News) / Aug 11, 2022
A high-profile Flint water crisis trial against two private engineering companies has ended with a hung jury.
Eastern District of Michigan U.S. District Court magistrate judge David Grand declared the mistrial on Thursday morning after receiving a note from the eight-member jury saying they did not believe they could deliver a verdict without putting the mental and physical health of the one holdout juror in jeopardy.
“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 note read.
The ruling on Thursday came after a two-week deliberation and a five-month-long trial for a lawsuit brought by four children who lived in Flint during the city’s contaminated water crisis against Veolia North America and Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam over their alleged role in the Flint water crisis. It was the first Flint water-related lawsuit to make it to trial since the man-made disaster began nearly a decade ago.
