OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The lawyer of Jennifer Crumbley filed a motion Wednesday to remove Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald from the Crumbley case and appoint a special prosecutor.
The 178-page motion accuses McDonald of suppressing secret agreements with two key witnesses.
It further alleges that the prosecutor’s office hired two public relations firms to conduct a smear campaign against Jennifer and James Crumbley, aiming to sway public opinion and taint the jury pool.
“She did so by using taxpayer-funded public relations firms that were hired in secret by the prosecutor’s office, and they hired the first one of those PR firms within hours of the shooting,” Crumbley’s attorney, Michael Dezsi, said.
McDonald expressed her frustration with the motion, asserting Crumbley’s actions speak for themselves.
“We don’t need a smear campaign to convict Jennifer Crumbley. Her actions convicted Jennifer Crumbley. And to top it all off, she then testifies she wouldn’t change a thing,” she said.
McDonald said government agencies always hire public relations firms; there is nothing “nefarious” about that.
Steve St. Juliana, the father of Oxford shooting victim Hana St. Juliana, accused Jennifer’s lawyer of conducting his own smear campaign.
“Stop trying to make her the victim. My daughter is the one that was murdered because of her negligence and her, I mean, by Jennifer Crumbley. Her decisions directly led to my daughter’s death,” said Steve.
A hearing has yet to be scheduled on the motion.
Crumbley is still awaiting a decision on a previous motion requesting a new trial.
“The motion that was filed is not legally proper. The judge has already heard these arguments and has deemed most of them irrelevant.
It’s disrespectful to the victims, their families, and the people in the community. It’s disrespectful of the court system. It’s disrespectful to the jury and the prosecution team. I stand by the work we did.
The suggestion of a smear campaign is ludicrous. The crisis communications firms fielded an overwhelming number of media inquiries, not drumming up coverage. And their work was not secret.
They were hired with the approval of the County Executive and the Board of Commissioners, and they interacted with the media on a daily basis.
The Prosecutor’s Office had no one to answer those calls, and the cost of their work was a fraction of what it would have cost to hire a full-time Public Information Officer.
This motion is nothing more than a desperate attempt to divert attention from Jennifer Crumbley herself.
Jennifer Crumbley was convicted by a jury, not the media. And she was convicted for what she did and didn’t do – she boasted about buying her son a nine-millimeter handgun and taking him to the shooting range, while ignoring her son’s pleas for help and all the signs that he was struggling, and then leaving the gun where he could access it.
When she was called to the school, she failed to tell anyone about his new gun or his struggles, and she refused to take him home. When she was charged for her role in the deaths of four kids, she fled.
After all of that, knowing that four kids died, and she could easily have stopped it, Jennifer Crumbley told the jury that she wouldn’t have changed a thing. We didn’t need a smear campaign to convict Jennifer Crumbley, her own actions and words were more than enough.”
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen D. McDonald
“The only publicly funded smear campaign I see going on is [Michael Dezsi], because he’s funded by the public taxpayers right now, and he’s the one that’s making all these smear allegations. It’s simply taking away from the primary issue of her guilt. Trying to make this a big media circus to hide the fact that he’s got no legal arguments is ridiculous. Stop trying to make [Jennifer Crumbley] the victim. My daughter is the one that was murdered because of her negligence.”
Steve St. Juliana, father of Oxford victim Hana St. Juliana
“In the aftermath of Michigan’s first school shooting, which resulted in the tragic death of four Oxford High School students, I understood it was essential that the Oakland County Prosecutor have the resources to respond to a community in crisis, which included keeping the public informed.”
Within hours of the Oxford tragedy, her office reached out for assistance dealing with the overwhelming media interest in the case. Unlike other Oakland County elected officials, Prosecutor McDonald inherited an office in January 2021 that did not have any communications staff to manage media, write press releases or provide public information. This situation often required assistant prosecutors to field media inquiries in addition to their normal job duties. That would not work with Oxford.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, my administration and the Board of Commissioners moved quickly to provide the Prosecutor with the appropriate support she and her office needed to keep the public informed and to prosecute the case – including $500,000 for communications, information technology, security and other related costs.”
Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter
“The only people who cannot be trusted are Jennifer Crumbly, her husband, and her son.
She was convicted for letting her son get a gun and kill four students and seriously injure six others and a teacher.
The stunt by a “wannabe famous” defense attorney only helps keep open the wounds the families of victims must endure, delay the healing of our community, and allow continued pain for others who have suffered at the hands of avoidable and senseless gun violence.”
Oakland County Board Chairman Dave Woodward
