
The Crumbleys at sentencing.
The high-profile Oxford High School case isn't fading away.
The latest:
Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press reports:
The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office spent at least $100,000 on two "high priced" public relations firms to run a "smear campaign" against the Oxford High School shooter's parents, cut a secret recording deal with ABC despite a judge's gag order, and allowed another national reporter to embed himself in its war room and document trial strategy sessions, according to a new defense court filing.
The prosecution did all this, the defense says, because it knew from the get-go that the law wasn't on its side, so it launched a campaign to convince the public that the unprecedented charges against James and Jennifer Crumbley were warranted.
The appellate attorney Michael Dezsi, who filed the allegations Monday in court, represents Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Ethan Crumbley, who was convicted in the shooting spree at Oxford High School that killed four and wounded seven.
The filing, according to the Freep, names two public relations firms hired by the prosecutor's office -- Moment Strategies, which is owned by former Detroit journalist Alexis Wiley, and a national crisis-response company called Identity.
Wiley tells the Freep the allegations of a "smear campaign" are a "distraction from the facts" of the case.