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Genesee County judge postpones decision on health director manslaughter case

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It will be another month before a judge decides whether the head of Michigan’s health department should stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.

Judge David Goggins was expected to decide this week whether there's enough evidence that Health Department Director Nick Lyon failed to act during a deadly Legionnaires Disease outbreak in 2014 and 2015.  

But instead, Defense Attorney John Bursch says Goggins asked the prosecution and defense to address some key issues one more time.

“One thing he asked us to focus on specifically was the gross negligence aspect of the manslaughter charges.  At least in my presentation I talked about that in a much more detailed evidence-based way than we did even in the brief we submitted.”

Prosecutor Todd Flood once again had harsh criticism of Lyon’s accountability as the head of the state health department. 

Judge Goggins expects to deliver his decision August 20th.