Oakland County prosecutor releases proffer agreements with 2 Oxford High School employees
(CBS DETROIT) - The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office has released two proffer agreements with two Oxford High School employees who were key witnesses in the trials of James and Jennifer Crumbley.
The employees who entered into the agreements were the shooter's counselor, Shawn Hopkins, and the former dean of students, Nicholas Ejak.
The testimonies of these two employees shed some light on what happened in the hours leading up to the Oxford High School shooting, where James and Jennifer Crumbley's son killed four students and injured seven other people.
According to the documents, Hopkins and Ejak had a meeting with the shooter and his parents the morning of the shooting. They let the shooter stay at school and go back to class, even though teachers had sent them emails expressing their concerns for the shooter at school, including a math assignment in which he drew a picture of a gun and wrote disturbing messages.
In addition, Ejak testified that there was no "reasonable suspicion" to search the shooter's backpack.
Nicholas Ejak signed the proffer agreement on Dec. 30, 2021, one month after the shooting had occurred.
Hopkins signed the proffer agreement on Jan. 5, 2022.
In releasing these documents, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said that they were not required to be disclosed because no promise of any kind was ever made.
"No witnesses were ever given immunity," said Oakland County Chief Prosecutor David Williams. "Any statements to the contrary are false. Two school employees agreed to sit down with the prosecution and truthfully provide all the information they had. They were represented by counsel, who asked for a proffer agreement. A proffer agreement does not provide any immunity from prosecution. The agreement specifically says that they may be prosecuted and that there are no promises made. The only purpose of the agreement is to allow the witness to have an initial meeting with the prosecution without fear that their statements in that meeting will be used to criminally charge them. Both witnesses subsequently testified under oath without any promises or protection, and they were given nothing for their testimony. The information they provided in that initial meeting was exactly what they testified to under oath in court. None of the information provided at the initial meeting was exculpatory to the defense, or it would have been provided. The Prosecutor has said from the beginning that she did not see sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against anyone at the school, and that position has never changed."
McDonald has said she did not see sufficient evidence to charge any Oxford staff member, and that hasn't changed.
In addition to addressing the speculation surrounding the undisclosed proffer agreements, the prosecutor's office addressed the threat James Crumbley made while in jail.
The threat was directly addressed to McDonald by name, and it involved the father "telling her what was going to happen to her when he is released."
The prosecutor's office said the threats were serious because they showed a lack of remorse and refusal to take accountability for his part in the deaths of the four students.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is investigating the threats, which will be included in a sentencing memorandum from the prosecutor's office.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are scheduled to be sentenced on April 9.
Read the proffer agreements below:
Proffer Agreement Shawn Hopkins by saranpowers14 on Scribd
Proffer Agreement Nick Ejak by saranpowers14 on Scribd