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?

There was a probable cause hearing today for the eight defendants¹ 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 prosecute² 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 Miller³ 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 investigation⁴ and other charges were dropped.

So that leaves us with eight defendants today.

1 defendants   

被告( defendant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The courts heard that the six defendants had been coerced into making a confession. 法官审判时发现6位被告人曾被迫承认罪行。
• As in courts, the defendants are represented by legal counsel. 与法院相同，被告有辩护律师作为代表。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

2 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

3 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。