Less than a week after a judge ruled that Michigan’s chief medical executive will face trial in connection to a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that led to the death of 12 people, the state’s health department has created an “advisory physician” job for the embattled doctor, paying nearly $180,000 a year. According to a Detroit News report, creating the civil service position for Dr. Eden Wells will make it harder for the incoming Democratic administration to fire her for her alleged role in covering up an outbreak of the pneumonia-like Legionnaires’ disease at McLaren Hospital. Experts say the outbreak is tied to the 2014 switch to Flint River water under an emergency manager appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.
Wells stands accused of involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of justice, and lying to a law enforcement officer. She is the second member of Snyder’s cabinet to face involuntary manslaughter charges in the Legionnaires’ outbreak; Health and Human Services director Nick Lyon was charged in August.
Wells was initially charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer last June. She is also alleged to have forbidden a county health department from notifying the public, interfered with the work of university researchers, and lied about when she learned of the outbreak, according to the Associated Press.
Like Wells, Lyon remains on the job pending the outcome of his case, even though Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has called on both of them to resign. Wells’s new civil service position will begin Jan. 1, but there’s no word on what Lyon will do once new Democratic Gov.-elect Gretchen Whitmer takes office.
Since the beginning of Wells’s legal troubles, her attorneys have claimed that she wasn’t informed of the 2014-15 Legionnaires’ epidemic until either September or October 2015—months before Snyder’s administration alerted the public. Her team also claims that Wells “had no ‘legal duty’ to alert residents” to the danger.
Flint’s mayor, who had commended 67th District Judge William Crawford for his decision to charge Wells with involuntary manslaughter—calling it a “good judicial decision” in a statement issued to the press—was decidedly less happy with the Snyder administration’s decision to reward Wells with the new job.
“I understand that you are innocent until proven guilty in this country; but I would love to see how many people are allowed to be bound over for trial on manslaughter, lying to a police officer, and obstruction, get a new position within the governmental structure, that is protected,” Mayor Karen W. Weaver said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “Not only is this a defiant laugh in the face of Flint residents, but this appears to be a blatant maneuver to keep the Governor-elect from making any decisions as far as keeping or removing a very controversial employee.”
Lyon is currently awaiting a ruling from Genesee Circuit Court Judge Joseph Farah on his September motion to have the charges against him dismissed. Wells’s attorney also plans to file a motion requesting that Judge Crawford’s decision be quashed.
Dawn Wolfe is a freelance writer and journalist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
This post was written and reported through our Daily Kos freelance program.