{"id":1356,"date":"2022-03-23T09:44:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T09:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/why-the-judge-is-sending-independent-lawyers-to-meet-with-parents-of-accused-oxford-high-school-shooter-wdiv-clickondetroit\/"},"modified":"2022-03-23T09:44:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T09:44:51","slug":"why-the-judge-is-sending-independent-lawyers-to-meet-with-parents-of-accused-oxford-high-school-shooter-wdiv-clickondetroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/23\/why-the-judge-is-sending-independent-lawyers-to-meet-with-parents-of-accused-oxford-high-school-shooter-wdiv-clickondetroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the judge is sending independent lawyers to meet with parents of accused Oxford High School shooter – WDIV ClickOnDetroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest Detroit news, weather and sports from WDIV Local 4.
LIVE
Shawn Ley<\/a><\/span>, Reporter
Kayla Clarke<\/a><\/span>, Web Producer
Published:\u00a0Shawn Ley<\/a><\/span>, Reporter
Kayla Clarke<\/a><\/span>, Web Producer
OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich.<\/strong> \u2013 The parents of the accused Oxford High School shooter<\/b><\/a> appeared in court on Tuesday for a pretrial hearing.
James<\/b><\/a> and Jennifer Crumbley<\/b><\/a> were bound over on manslaughter charges in February. Their son is accused of opening fire at Oxford High School<\/b><\/a> last November.
Tuesday\u2019s hearing was the first time the couple appeared in circuit court. The hearing was brief but the issue at hand is incredibly important to the case. It was the first hearing since their long and explosive preliminary hearing where a judge found there was enough evidence to send them to trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Read: <\/b>Why hasn\u2019t there been an independent review into the Oxford High School shooting?<\/b><\/a>
Prosecutors argue that the parents should be held accountable for allegedly providing their son with the handgun he is accused of using in the shooting. Prosecutors also argued that their son was in crisis, calling out for help and his parents ignored warning signs.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are each represented by a different attorney, but the attorneys are with the same firm. Prosecutors asked the judge to look at the issue and determine if there is a conflict of interest between the two lawyers.
The judge agreed and said she wants to avoid any chance of a mistrial so she is sending two different attorneys to meet separately with the Crumbleys to explain all the conflicts that could come up during the trial.
\u201cI hope the Crumbleys understand the terms for the independent council. I\u2019m concerned that at some point today, tomorrow, next week, a month from now, four months from now, that something could happen to cause a conflict that could damage your position, Mr. Crumbley, or your position, Mrs. Crumbley. And I have an obligation to protect your rights and I\u2019m concerned as we sit here right now, that there could be a myriad of things that are incompatible. So I\u2019m sending appointed council, independent council and their job isn\u2019t to report back to me, their job isn\u2019t to take the place of your attorney. They\u2019re going to talk to you about a conflict of interest, potential conflict of interest, and what would be in your best interest. So, I would urge you to listen to them and ask them any questions you might have because obviously this is very stressful for everyone involved. I\u2019m trying to avoid your rights being implicated in a negative way, but I\u2019m also trying to avoid having to recreate, or go backwards, with regard to this case. For example, if the matter is in trial and there is a conflict in the middle of the trial, that could cause a mistrial. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s no surprise to you that the court is very backed up. I happen to have a fairly reasonable docket, but some of the judges in the courthouse are trying cases where individuals have been in jail for 700 days and that would not be my intent if the matter goes to trial. I would give you the speediest trial possible. However, if there\u2019s a mistrial because of some conflict that arises during the trial, we\u2019d be back at square one. So, I want to avoid that.\u201d
James and Jennifer Crumbley are expected to meet with independent council within the next two weeks to discuss potential issues.
Prosecutors want James and Jennifer Crumbley to sign waivers after meeting with the independent attorneys. They can still choose to continue the trial with the lawyers they have now — but prosecutors do not want the lawyers to be a reason for them to appeal any potential convictions.
Read: <\/b>Complete Oxford High School shooting coverage<\/b><\/a>
Have information?<\/b> You can reach the Local 4 Defenders<\/b><\/a> investigative team by calling 313-962-9348, or you can fill out this form<\/b><\/a>.
Copyright 2022 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.
Local 4 Defender Shawn Ley is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has been with Local 4 News for more than a decade.
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Kayla is a Web Producer for ClickOnDetroit. Before she joined the team in 2018 she worked at WILX in Lansing as a digital producer.
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Copyright \u00a9 2022 ClickOnDetroit.com is managed by Graham Digital and pubished by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings.<\/p>\n

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The latest Detroit news, weather and sports from WDIV Local 4.LIVEShawn Ley, ReporterKayla Clarke, Web ProducerPublished:\u00a0March 22, 2022, 12:33 PMUpdated:\u00a0March 22, 2022, 1:14 PMShawn Ley, ReporterKayla Clarke, Web ProducerOAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. \u2013 The parents of the accused Oxford High School shooter appeared in court on Tuesday for a pretrial hearing.James and Jennifer Crumbley were bound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}