Lee-Anne Walters from Flint holds a glass of filtered water at the Webber residence on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016 in Flint, MI. Walters was unable to drink the water in fear that, though filtered, it contained lead and was unsafe for drinking.

The Wall Street Journal

Michigan’s attorney general has tapped a Detroit-area trial lawyer and a former head of the FBI’s Detroit field office to lead a state probe into
Flint’s drinking water crisis.

Attorney General Bill Schuette said he picked lawyers from outside his office, naming one as special counsel, to avoid a conflict. His office is also responsible for defending the governor and state officials from pending class-action lawsuits over the contamination scandal.

“This investigation is about beginning the road back, to rebuild, regain and restore trust in government,” Mr. Schuette said in a statement Monday.

Spearheading the state investigation is Todd Flood, a former Wayne County assistant prosecutor and currently the managing partner of Flood Law, PLLC, a law firm in Royal Oak, Mich. Retired Detroit FBI chief Andrew Arena will assist Mr. Flood, the attorney general said.

Mr. Flood has tried hundreds of cases and was also on the legal team that helped negotiate former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s 2008 plea deal.

He and Mr. Arena are affiliated with the Detroit Crime Commission, a private, not-for-profit policing group founded in 2011 that provides investigative resources to local law enforcement. Mr. Arena is the group’s executive director. Mr. Flood helped start the organization and serves on its board.

“Flint families and Michigan families will receive a full and independent report of our investigation,” Mr. Arena said a statement.

Flint’s water system became contaminated with lead in 2014 after the city switched its drinking source from Detroit water system to the Flint River under a cost-cutting plan approved while the city was run by a state-appointed emergency manager. Officials failed to install corrosion control systems. Lead and other contaminants were leached into the water in people’s homes.

Gov. Rick Snyder last week apologized for the crisis and vowed to fix it. The head of the Flint Water Treatment Plant and top officials at the state environmental agency have resigned. As WSJ earlier reported, new emails released by the governor last week show that the governor’s administration argued over whether the state or the city was responsible for fixing the lead problem once it came to light.

Federal prosecutors are also investigating Flint’s water contamination.