Editors note: This story has been updated.
Jennifer Crumbley’s appellate lawyer has been fined $1,657 over his request to get Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald and her team kicked off the case on alleged misconduct grounds.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews issued the fine on June 9 after previously concluding that appellate attorney Michael Dezsi’s request to have McDonald disqualified was for an “improper purpose because the court clearly didn’t have jurisdiction to decide the motion.” In her order, she called Dezsi’s motion “frivolous,” stating that his grounds for seeking McDonald’s removal had already been raised before, and were therefore redundant.
While Matthews had sanctioned Dezsi in April over his motion, it wasn’t until June 9 that she announced the $1,657 fine, which is how much Dezsi — who is court appointed in this case — was paid for filing the request. He has until July 14 to pay it back, though Dezsi is appealing the sanction order to the Michigan Court of Appeals, arguing he has a right to scrutinize the prosecution’s tactics and fight for his client.
“I will not be bullied or intimidated into being silent about the prosecutor’s misconduct or how Jennifer Crumbley was denied a fair trial,” Dezsi said in a statement Tuesday. “It is my job for which I swore an oath that I intend to honor to the fullest extent. I am confident that the court’s sanction will be thrown out by a higher court.”
Attorney Michael Dezsi, left, argues on behalf of his client Jennifer Crumbley, as they attend a motion as Crumbley is looking for a new trial in her case in front of Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews a the Oakland County Court House in Pontiac on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025.
More: Defense: Prosecutor paid 3rd PR firm thousands to ‘smear’ the Crumbleys
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Dezsi has argued — among other things — that McDonald and her staff cannot be trusted with Crumbley’s case, alleging prosecutors crossed multiple ethical and legal lines in handling her historic prosecution. This includes brokering secret proffer agreements with two key witnesses who testified against Crumbley at trial — these deals protected the witnesses from having statements to investigators used against them — and hiring high-priced public relations firms to run what Dezsi alleges was a “smear campaign” against the Crumbleys to sway public opinion.
The prosecutor’s office has scoffed at Dezsi’s claims, calling the “smear campaign” accusations “absurd,” and saying it was under no obligation to turn the proffer agreements over to the defense because, it maintains, no immunity was ever granted to any witnesses.
The proffer agreements, meanwhile, are being scrutinized by the judge as Matthews is still trying to determine whether the prosecution engaged in misconduct by withholding the deals from the defense, and whether Crumbley deserves a new trial or acquittal should she conclude there was misconduct. The defense has requested a retrial, or acquittal.
Matthews has previously expressed concern over the prosecution’s handling of the proffer agreements, but has yet to issue a decision.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents in America to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child. Two separate juries convicted both parents of involuntary manslaughter over their roles in the massacre that claimed the lives of four Oxford High School students in 2021. Six other students and a teacher were also injured in the rampage.
The shooter, who was 15 at the time of the massacre, pleaded guilty to all his crimes and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He is appealing, as are his parents, who maintain they had no idea their son was planning to shoot up his school, and that the gun he used in the tragedy was hidden in an armoire unloaded, with the bullets hidden in a separate drawer.
The prosecution has long argued the Crumbleys, more than anyone else, could have prevented the massacre had they done the “smallest of things,” like put a lock on the gun, tell school officials that their son had access to a gun on the day they were summoned over his troubling behavior, or bring him home after seeing a picture of gun that he had drawn, along with the words: “The thoughts won’t stop, help me.”
The Crumbleys went back to their jobs after being summoned over that note. Their son went back to class. Two hours later, he fired his first shot.
Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jennifer Crumbley’s lawyer fined over his request to kick prosecutor off case
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