OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The attorney for Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, alleges that the prosecution paid public relations firms to engage in a “smear campaign” against the shooter’s parents.
In a new court filing on Monday, Jan. 13, Crumbley’s new attorney, Michael Dezsi, said that the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office also allowed journalists to be part of their trial preparation meetings, despite the judge’s gag order that was in place.
“This smear campaign, that has only recently come to light, is just another in a list of abuses by the prosecution,” said Dezsi. “And when the prosecution ignores judicial orders and attempts to manipulate the law and the people, the very public the system is designed to protect becomes endangered. Mrs. Crumbley is just one example of how any citizen can become the victim of an over-reaching prosecution.”
Contracts that date back to Jan. 1, 2022, show the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office spent at least $100,000 of taxpayer money when it entered into agreements with two public relations firms, Identity and Moment Strategies, LLC, to “manage and coordinate the media,” according to a release from Dezsi.
The attorney said the prosecution also agreed to let journalists from ABC News and the Washington Post observe their trial preparations. The documentary aired on Hulu after the trials had ended.
Dezsi alleges the outlets were “hand-picked” to ensure “a skewed story, manufactured to rally support in placing the blame for school shootings on parents.”
“Mrs. Crumbley was behind the 8-ball before her original trial even began,” said Dezsi. “The court made it very clear that both the prosecution and defense were prohibited from engaging with media in any way that would encourage pre-trial publicity. The prosecution ignored that order and not only contacted select media but also enlisted public relations firms to push their agenda.”
Dezsi also outlined “secret deals,” known as proffer agreements, between the prosecutor’s office and two Oxford High School staff members.
“First we uncover secret deals with key witnesses and now we learn the same prosecution paid for a smear campaign, completely ignoring judicial instruction, I’m flabbergasted,” Dezsi said in the release.
The proffer agreements made with Nick Ejak, the former dean of students at Oxford High School, and Shawn Hopkins, a former high school counselor, didn’t grant the employees immunity, but under them, any statements made wouldn’t be used in any potential criminal prosecution of them.
The agreements were signed in January 2022 but weren’t released to the public until March 2024.
“The prosecution’s intentional suppression of its secret Proffer Agreements undermines the entire trial and verdict in this case,” Dezsi said in the court filing. It should be highlighted that the prosecution’s suppression of the Proffer Agreements was neither accidental nor an oversight. Rather, it was intentional. In light of the intentional nature of the prosecution’s discovery violation, a judgment of acquittal is the most appropriate remedy."
You can find the full court filing at the end of the story.
Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams released the following statement Monday in response to the latest court filing:
The Oxford High School shooting drew immediate national and international attention. False rumors began spreading quickly. Schools across Michigan and across the country were closed because of false threats. The Oakland County Executive and the Oakland County Board of Commissioners immediately provided the resources needed to get reliable information to the public and the media. We owed that to the victims and the public.
The two stories defense counsel references came out after the jury verdicts, not before, and the suggestion that they had any impact on the jury is ridiculous.
Jennifer Crumbley was convicted for what she did and didn’t do, and the defense cannot change those facts. The judge explained the law in Michigan regarding gross negligence to the jury, and the jury unanimously convicted her of involuntary manslaughter. She was convicted on the facts, not a media narrative.
Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams
Dezsi has argued that Crumbley should have never been tried in the first place and requested that she be released from prison while appealing her sentence, saying it would be “grossly unfair and unjust” to keep her behind bars during the process.
“Mrs. Crumbley has committed no crime, has never harmed anyone, and is certainly not a flight risk, so there is no reason to deny her right to freedom while an overreaching prosecution attempts to pin the failings of a nation on the [backs of parents],” Dezsi said in December.
On Jan. 3, 2025, in response to those requests, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said, “The mother received a fair trial in front of a jury of her peers, and her motion for a new trial should be denied.”
When addressing the bond request, McDonald said, “This is at least the seventh time bond has been addressed during these proceedings. The only difference now is that the presumption of innocence no longer applies -- the defendant has been convicted by a jury of her peers for causing the deaths of Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, and Justin Shilling. Like each of the defendant’s previous requests relating to bond, this motion should be denied.”
Jennifer and James Crumbley were the first parents in the U.S. to be convicted in a mass school shooting carried out by their child.
The parents were sentenced in separate trials to 10-15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter in connection to the shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, which left four students dead and seven people injured.
Their son, now 18, was 15 at the time of the shooting. He pleaded guilty to all 24 charges in December 2022 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December 2023.
Just weeks ago, in December 2024, a judge refused to allow the school shooter to withdraw his guilty plea.
Crumbley Reply 1.13.25 by snpowers on Scribd
