Oxford shooter's parents' request to attend son's hearing; prosecutors balk
PONTIAC, Mich. — Prosecutors balked at a request from James and Jennifer Crumbley to attend the hearing that will determine if their son will have the chance to be released on parole after killing four people in a shooting at Oxford High School in November 2021.
The Crumbleys' attorneys filed a motion March 27 asking that their clients be allowed to attend their son's May 1 Miller hearing, where Judge Kwamé Rowe will hear testimony to indicate if there are mitigating factors that would make it unconstitutional to sentence their son to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This hearing is "of paramount importance" to the Crumbleys, their attorneys, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, wrote. They have not been allowed to have contact with their son, though they have received "sufficient" updates from family members and from their attorneys on how he is doing, according to the request.
But the Crumbleys' statement that they are concerned about their son "is a stark contrast to their actions and inactions immediately after the shooting," Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast wrote.
"These defendants abandoned their son the moment they thought charges against them were possible," Keast wrote. "They left it to the court to find him an attorney, they emptied his bank account and they used that money to find themselves an attorney and flee from apprehension."
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews will decide if the Crumbleys can attend the hearing. A motion hearing will be held April 12.
—The Detroit News
Maryland AG report on Catholic Church sex abuse to be released Wednesday
BALTIMORE — An judge approved the release of a Maryland attorney general office’s report on clergy abuse within the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, and the office will release the report to the public Wednesday, a spokesperson said.
The attorney general’s office found during its four-year investigation that 158 Catholic priests and brothers sexually abused or tortured more than 600 children during an 80-year period beginning in the 1940s.
Aleithea Warmack, of the attorney general’s office, said Tuesday the report would be released Wednesday.
On Monday night, the Most Rev. William E. Lori, the archbishop of Baltimore, told Catholics in Central and Western Maryland that he expected “the Baltimore City Circuit Court will soon authorize the Maryland Office of Attorney General to release its report into child sexual abuse by some ministers of the Church and the Archdiocese’s own past failures in responding to such allegations.”
Lori warned the archdiocese’s half-million Catholics in his emailed message that it will be “devastating to read.”
The archdiocese covers Baltimore City and the counties of Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard and Washington.
—The Baltimore Sun
Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran discuss Ankara-Damascus Agreement
Deputy foreign ministers from Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran on Tuesday completed two days of talks in Moscow aimed at restoring ties between Ankara and Damascus, in a step aimed at easing the international isolation of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The four countries discussed preparations for a meeting between their top diplomats, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website that gave no further details.
The diplomatic push, opposed by the U.S., is part of broader efforts by Russia and China to challenge Washington in the Middle East. It comes after China demonstrated its new-found weight in the region by brokering a diplomatic detente between Iran and U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria, a presence that Moscow and Damascus have long sought to end.
The four-way talks had been scheduled to take place last month but were postponed. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who faces a reelection battle in May, has said he’s willing to sit down with Assad to promote peace in the region.
In another signal of Assad coming in from the cold, Saudi Arabia plans to invite him to a summit of Arab leaders that Riyadh is hosting in May, Reuters reported Sunday.
—Bloomberg News
