Crumbley had texted her boyfriend that she could have stopped Ethan from going to school and thereby prevented the shooting. While this sort of after-the-fact grief-stricken statement could be an understandable assumption of responsibility, the jury likely found that it was an admission of guilt.
The jury was quite familiar with gun ownership. So it would be unreasonable to portray this case as an infringement on Second Amendment rights or an attack on the culture prevailing in much of rural America in which parents give access to firearms to teenagers. Nor do I expect this case to open the door to a series of Nanny state prosecutions.
This crime was historically awful in its statewide impact. Prosecutors at the state level are elected in our country, and I do not believe the public expects its prosecutors to condemn understandable parenting mistakes. But some acts of negligence are so extreme that they cry out for prosecution. We already prosecute parents who let their children overheat to death in cars. It makes sense that parents who let their very disturbed children have access to firearms and then kill people get prosecuted as well.
Jennifer Crumbley is the first parent in the United States to go on trial in a mass school shooting carried out by their child. CBS New Detroit update, February 6, 2024, by Sara Powers, "Jury finds Jennifer Crumbley guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter". ]]>The Biden Administration has proposed regulations but not yet issued them that would change the process to make it much less like a court hearing and more like simple interviews. I expect these regulations to be issued in the next six months.
As I stated, the new regulations will not affect procedures much at public universities in Ohio and Michigan because of a federal appeals court decision, Doe v Baum, that requires hearings with cross-examination.
However, It is unclear how many private colleges and universities in Ohio and Michigan will switch to the new model.
What about high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools? The existing regulations require investigations but are vague about what due process is required. For the most part, school districts are simply conducting interviews.
How about university faculty and staff? Here we see a much greater array of policies. Most colleges try to avoid hearing processes if they can get away with it. University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and the University of Toledo all regularly hold hearings in cases concerning faculty and staff.
NachtLaw, PC maintains a large caseload of Title IX cases with tremendous success for many clients. We pride ourselves in being the best in this subfield and most experienced in this nuanced area of the law that combines aspects of education law, employment law, and criminal law— all areas in which our firm has 30-plus years of experience.
You have never heard the names of most of our clients and they won’t put up Google reviews to preserve their identity. But lawyers and former clients routinely send us cases.
When it comes to your career and reputation or that of your child— we preserve it to the greatest possible degree.
]]>David Nacht is recognized nationally as a leading practitioner in this field of Title IX work and receives referrals from lawyers nationwide. At any given moment he represents well over a dozen Title IX clients at the University of Michigan and Michigan State. In court, Nacht’s important victories in Doe v NMU, Dow v Aquinas College, Carlock v Wayne State, and Smock v Michigan were precedent-setting victories for the accused.]]>
Too many Americans believe that the popularity of a person, a product, or a viewpoint about a fact constitutes proof of the correctness of the popular view.
We make purchasing decisions based on reviews. We listen to people who share our views about political, scientific, and other facts.
But we all learned as a child that just because people say something is true does not make it true. We have all had the experience of people believing something not true about us or someone we love.
Somehow in the culture of social media, we have forgotten this basic truth.
Millions of Russians believed Stalin’s statements to be true. Millions of Germans believed Hitler’s statements to be true. Millions of Americans used to believe that slavery was good and women should not vote.
The fact that a view is popular or widely shared among your friends does not make the view correct or the underlying facts true.
The essence of due process is to give the accused the right to be confronted with allegations and to face and question their accusers. And to have the decision made by an independent person. The judge and the jury should not be the same person as the police officer or prosecutor.
In too many universities and workplaces, loud voices create perceptions about the accused. Accused executives, physicians, professors, workers, and students are being forced out of jobs and careers without due process.
When we remove due process protections, people always say it is for a good reason. But in the end, no one remains safe from false or mistaken accusations when we make it too easy to find someone guilty.
History teaches us this: the Salem Witch trials in late 17th century Massachusetts; the show trials of alleged counter-revolutionaries in the “Terror” in the French Revolution; and McCarthy-inspired investigations of alleged communists in the US in the 1950s all involved the loss of protections for the accused because of the perceived importance of finding “justice.”
At NachtLaw, we fight for our clients to ensure they get the due process the law mandates. In multiple cases, we have gone to court to expand the legal protections that exist for our clients and won. Since 1996, we have tenaciously fought for and saved careers.
It is an honor to fight not only for our clients - but for the American way of life.
David Nacht, an Ann Arbor attorney who represents complainants and respondents in Title IX cases at the University of Michigan and MSU, said universities generally do not publicly discuss Title IX cases or the identity of those involved, and those university-created rules are derived from federal regulations that require schools keep confidential the identity of complainants, respondents and witnesses.
"The internal rules, in general, are established to protect the privacy of everybody," Nacht said. "Most complainants don't want their identity disclosed. This person is very brave and came forward. These rules protect women who come forward as much as the accused men. Anybody can go to the press whenever they want. Given that if their party can go to the press, then the privacy rules only exist as long as both parties want them to."
Read more comments from David and the full article, "MSU leaders chose not to seek details of ongoing Tucker investigation, spokeswoman says", from the Detroit News dated September 12, 2023, by Hannah Mackay, Jennifer Chambers, and Hayley Harding.]]>There is always a vesting schedule and the executive facing a termination almost always gets to keep vested options and shares.
If the executive works for a privately held company that is likely to be sold, sometimes she or he is pushed out before the next round or “tranche” vests.
We have been successful at negotiating for obtaining invested shares and for obtaining the right not to sell immediately at the current lower fair market value. That way our client gets the benefit of the rise in value that comes with the company sale.
We have sued in Michigan and Ohio and Delaware courts when necessary. We advise about non-compete and trade secrets clauses.
We fight whether the termination is “for cause”.
There are many issues to consider to obtain leverage for our client in the negotiation and to maximize opportunity for our client’s career, and we have decades of experience that help us assist.
For more information read: What You Need to Know About Severance Packages.]]>Did you expect that you were entitled to due process before your grants were suspended?
That was the old days.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) is on a new mission to clean up the evils in academia. They seem to be targeting three groups:
Historically, NIH would ask the university to investigate and patiently await the results. Increasingly, however, NIH bullies universities to pull the professor’s funding and status as principal investigator temporarily, pending the outcome of the investigation. The investigation may last over a year! Careers are getting destroyed without due process.
Our law firm is on the front lines to fight for the right of due process for faculty.
One would think that the McCarthyism era would have taught the federal government and universities a lesson. The lesson must be relearned. Accusations and suspicions are not proof.
We defend the wrongfully accused.
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