(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/18/2024) In a rare move, Oakland County's prosecutor authored a legal opinion saying Attorney General Dana Nessel can investigate the Oxford school employees' response to a fatal 2021 mass shooting – without invitation from the prosecutor. 

Nessel countered in an afternoon press conference that there is no existing statute providing her department with authority to launch a civil investigation and efforts to do so could be stymied as evidenced by Michigan State University's invitation – and then lack of cooperation – into an investigation related to the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal. 

"We’re asking for the Legislature to provide us with some specific authority that we don't have right now," Nessel said. "And, it might be something where there's a state law that says where there is an investigation into a school shooting that the school board is not protected by attorney-client privilege or that we have the ability to force people to testify or to provide interviews to us." 

Prosecutor Karen McDonald's Oct. 9 memo was in response to Steve St. Juliana's inquiry about Nessel's authority related to "potential criminal acts." 

St. Juliana's 14-year-old daughter, Hana St. Juliana, was one of four students killed in the Oxford High School shooting in November 2021. 

On Monday, Steve St. Juliana and the parents of five other victims, called on state leaders, including Nessel, to fully investigate the school district, its staff and officials, whom the parents say have escaped accountability and liability for their actions that fatal Nov. 30, 2021. 

"Stop pointing fingers back and forth. We should not have to sit up here repeatedly saying, 'Do a damn investigation,'" he said, paraphrasing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as he added: "Fix the damn system, forget about the roads. Keep our kids safe." 

Stacey LaRouche, Whitmer's press secretary, said Whitmer "has supported an independent review of the shooting to ensure that families have answers to their questions and to help school districts around the state better protect students." 

LaRouche said after the shooting, the state launched a review of its gun violence prevention policies, which led to "commonsense legislation" Whitmer signed into law, including safe storage laws and establishing extreme risk protection orders to ensure people who have been deemed a threat to themselves or others can't access dangerous weapons.   

Victims' families say they've learned little about events leading up to school shooting, although criminal investigations concluded with the shooter, Ethan Crumbley, pleading guilty and two juries convicting his parents of involuntary manslaughter for allowing him access to the gun. 

An investigation by third-party Guidepost Solutions lacked information from two-thirds of the staff, who refused to cooperate, including key school officials who made the controversial decision to allow Crumbley, then 15, to return to class following a meeting with his parents hours before the rampage. 

"I just want to make clear the authority of the Oakland County prosecutor's office and the authority of the Oakland County sheriff's department is exactly the same as our authority," Nessel said. "So, I guess my question is: If those entities could not get these people to cooperate, how will we be able to do it?" 

The prosecutor's office gave some school officials a Kastigar agreement, which essentially allowed school officials to provide testimony without facing criminal charges - a decision Nessel called "a concern." 

The Oxford parents want the state to pay for an investigation and use the AG's subpoena power to force those school officials who refused to testify to do so now. 

"This is about getting the truth out there to create the countermeasures to save our kids," Steve St. Juliana said. "This is not about identifying people to prosecute. That's what the attorney general continues to get wrong … 

"The bigger piece, and what we're talking about today, is to drive the change, to change the future … This is an opportunity to leverage the tragedy that occurred into an act as a lesson learned for the entire state and possibly even the nation," he added. 

Buck Myre, the father of shooting victim Tate Myre, 16, added: "This has always been about change, period. Nothing else … Every kid in that school that day has a shooting badge, a shooting badge that they will heavily carry on their chest for the rest of their lives. Don't we want to learn from this?" 

The parents said they want to see improved safety protocols, threat assessments and education on what is driving young people's desire to shoot their classmates. 

The parents said Nessel has claimed she can't investigate without an invitation from the school, prosecutor's office or that she lacks probable cause. 

Nessel said she repeatedly offered assistance to the county prosecutor's office as well as the county sheriff, and it was repeatedly rejected. 

"To this day, let me make it clear, neither the Oakland County Sheriff's Office nor the prosecutor's office has ever asked us to take part in a criminal investigation into what took place in Oxford," she said, noting it is department policy to act on invitation and not to supersede a local department's investigation. 

McDonald said in an afternoon statement on Monday that her office lacks authority to conduct the investigation the families want, and she is not aware of "any mechanism for our office to refer a matter to the Attorney General's office when it has not been presented to our office." 

McDonald said her office "will do everything possible to enable such an investigation" and they will cooperate with an AG's investigation. 

Nessel said doing an investigation three years later would require both the prosecutor and sheriff to turn over evidence – including transcripts and interviews – from their investigations as well as make their employees available for interviews. She noted that otherwise her department would be left spinning its wheels. 

Nessel, who has two years remaining in her term, noted an "expedited appropriation" from the Legislature also would be needed to conduct an investigation, which would need to be done within three years - before the statute of limitations runs out. 

Sheriff Michael Bouchard issued a statement after Nessel's press conference, saying his office has been "more than willing to participate in any state review or investigation," and if the AG wants access to the department's "investigative reports or our people, I will happily provide them." 

Bouchard added: "Our hope is that this would be a whole government systematic review which includes mental health, school and public safety entities to see if there are lessons we can learn to prevent such tragedies rather than responding to them."