密歇根新闻广播 刑事程序出台 八位被告国家工作人员该如何应对?（在线收听）

There was a probable cause hearing today for the eight defendants charged by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette in the Flint water disaster. What does that mean, and how does today's hearing fit into the legal process?

Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning joined Stateside to provide some answers.

For starters, what is a probable cause conference?

"It's the first step after defendants have been charged," said Henning. "It's an opportunity for the government to say what it's going to do to establish probable cause that these defendants committed the crimes they're accused of. For the defendant[s], it's their first chance to really see the government unveil its case [and] how it plans to prosecute them, if the case gets to trial."

At the end of July, the Attorney General filed criminal charges against six state employees -- three of them from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (Nancy Peeler, Corinne Miller and Robert Scott) and three more from the Department of Environmental Quality (Liane Shekter-Smith, Adam Rosenthal and Patrick Cook).

Back in April, Schuette announced felony charges against DEQ officials Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby, as well as Flint city employee Mike Glasgow, who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor. Glasgow is currently cooperating with the investigation and other charges were dropped.

So that leaves us with eight defendants today.