(WWJ) — Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews will hear arguments at the end of January to determine whether the mother of the Oxford High School shooter should have her conviction tossed, get a new trial or be released on bond during the appeals process.
In new documents filed Monday morning attorney Michael Dezsi, on behalf of Jennifer Crumbley, claims the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office spent $100,000 on a public relations campaign to “smear” the Crumbleys.
Both Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, were convicted in 2024 of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting at Oxford High School carried out by their son, Ethan Crumbley.
The shooting killed four students — Madisyn Baldwin, Justin Shilling, Tate Myre and Hana St. Juliana — and wounded six other students and a teacher.
Dezsi says Jennifer Crumbley was “behind the 8-ball before her original trial even began.”
“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,” said a release from Dezsi’s law firm. “The prosecution ignored that order and not only contacted select media but also enlisted public relations firms to push their agenda.”
The attorney claims contracts dating as far back as Jan. 1, 2022, “show the prosecution entered into agreements with Identity and Moment Strategies, LLC, spending at least $100,000 of taxpayer money to “manage and coordinate the media.”
Dezsi claims the prosecutor’s office agreed to let journalists from ABC News and the Washington Post to observe trial preparations.
Dezsi told WWJ Newsradio 950’s Ryan Wrecker he and his legal team “don’t believe there’s been a crime that’s been committed and there’s no legal duty recognized under the law that would allow for them to prosecutor Mrs. Crumbley.”
Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams released the following statement in response to Monday’s 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.”
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