DETROIT — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says her office will launch a state-led probe into the 2021 Oxford High School attack but said she still lacks what she says is a necessary referral from the county prosecutor and sheriff to take over the case.

On Monday afternoon, Nessel held a press conference to respond to a public demand from Oxford families for a statewide comprehensive investigation into the mass shooting that examines possible criminal conduct by school staff and addresses K-12 policies that failed to prevent the mass shooting.

"My department will only take over after local authorities have provided a referral. Neither the Sheriff's Office or the Prosecutor have asked us to take over any part of the criminal investigation. Nor did they take our multiple offers to help," Nessel said, referring to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald.

The families' demand for accountability, coming during a separate press conference earlier Monday, has revealed an unusual rift between investigating agencies over who has the authority and responsibility to open a probe.

Nessel was firing back at McDonald after the prosecutor told Oxford families in a memo that the Michigan Attorney General's Office has the authority to investigate the actions of Oxford school district employees "regardless of invitation."

At her press conference Monday, Nessel said Bouchard and McDonald declined offers from her office to help in the case early on, and she needed a commitment from them to turn over extensive evidence in the case now or “we're just going to be spinning our wheels here.”

She chastised both Oakland County officials for not asking her personally to take on the case and instead having Oxford families ask.

“Why not just ask us? Why make the families ask us? They have my personal phone number,” Nessel said.

She added: "This is going to be an expensive endeavor. ... I only have two years left in office. Where is that money going to come from?"

McDonald wrote the legal opinion at the request of Steve St. Juliana, the father of one of four students murdered in the 2021 mass shooting. The Oct. 9 memo outlines why Attorney General Dana Nessel's office, with its own investigatory division, has the power to open an investigation into potential criminal acts of school employees in connection with the attack, including using subpoena power.

"Based on the research performed by my office, including the legal authority cited below and a review of prior AG investigations, it is the opinion of the Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney that the Michigan Attorney General has the authority to conduct such an investigation, regardless of invitation," McDonald wrote in the four-page memo to St. Juliana obtained by The Detroit News. "We have found that the authority of the Attorney General is broad in scope, and this authority includes the power to investigate potential violations of Michigan law."

The "regardless of invitation" distinction is significant because Nessel's office has argued in part it could not investigate the Oxford shooting because the district's school board refused her request to do so. Nessel's department had maintained that her office needed the permission of the Oxford school board unless there was probable cause to believe a crime was committed.

At a Monday press conference, St. Juliana, along with parents of all four slain victims and another student who was a victim of the attack, said a comprehensive investigation into all aspects of the attack is needed.

“This investigation would be the opportunity to pull together all the disparate data and fill in the blanks and missing pieces to establish a data-driven base to create real countermeasures," St. Juliana said. "This is about getting the truth out there to create the countermeasures to save our kids."

“This is not about identifying people to prosecute. That's what the attorney general continues to get wrong on this. While that is a part of the story, the bigger piece, what we're talking about today, is to drive the change, to change the future.”

With 20 people standing in support behind the families, St. Juliana said: "We don’t care about the mechanics. Get this investigation done. We are tired of the back-and-forth. We are done with that. We don’t care. ... It's been three years of excuses."

Buck Myre, whose son Tate was killed in the attack, said during the press conference that the families are asking for the government to investigate itself.

“... You haven't asked anybody any questions to evaluate yourself before, during or after, not one question to see how good of a job that you're doing,” Myre said at the press conference, referring to local government officials. “So if you're not interested in preventing gun violence and you're not interested in supporting victims and communities after a gun violence tragedy, why do you exist?"

Bouchard attended the families' press conference and stood with them in their request for a statewide investigation. Afterward, he said his office interviewed everyone in and around the school building on the day of the attack, and all of that information was brought to the prosecutor.

"If the prosecutor thinks there's a potential for something else, then they give us what's called a further. We have not been given a further ... if they want us to go and look at something else, we're happy to do it," he said.

On Sunday, a spokeswoman for Nessel's office criticized McDonald's legal opinion in a statement to The News, saying: "It is deeply disturbing that the Prosecutor assembled such a memo without sharing it or discussing it with us, and then further refused to provide us with a copy when we requested it, or without disclosing to the families that their office maintains the exact same prosecutorial authority as our office."

In the McDonald memo, she cited three other high-profile matters the attorney general's office has already investigated — Michigan State University's handling of serial rapist Larry Nassar from 2018-24; clergy sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Michigan starting in 2018; and the Flint water crisis starting in 2016.

In each instance, the attorney general's office launched its own investigation, working with the Michigan State Police in one case, appointing special prosecutors in another case and, in the MSU case, the office responded to an elected board's request to act, the prosecutor wrote.

"The Attorney General’s Office holds a wide range of powers, which include the investigatory powers that were held at common law. In addition to the investigatory powers, the Attorney General’s office is equipped with its own Criminal Investigations Division — meaning it not only has the authority, but also the resources to investigate potential violations of Michigan law," McDonald wrote.

Citing an attorney general's opinion, McDonald also wrote the attorney general "may employ investigators and delegate to them full law enforcement powers necessary to enforce the general criminal laws of the state.”

Nessel: McDonald passing the buck

McDonald's opinion was a direct response to a request by St. Juliana to hold Oxford school employees and board members accountable for their actions leading up to the shooting. St. Juliana's daughter, Hana, was one of four students killed. St. Juliana made the request on behalf of his family and other victims of the attack.

St. Juliana told The News that McDonald's opinion was the first clear answer he has received from a public official about the shooting that killed his 14-year-old daughter.

"I kind of feel vindicated. It’s a logical reply and seems to fit with what everybody seems to believe," St. Juliana said. "And the only people saying the AG can't do it is the AG."

In a Sunday statement to The News, Nessel spokeswoman Kim Bush accused McDonald of issuing the memo to "pass the buck instead of providing closure or answers to the families who experienced a horrific loss." Bush said the department would take over the investigation but that McDonald could request additional criminal investigation from the sheriff’s office into the school employees.

Bush said officers with Sheriff Bouchard's office are best positioned to continue their criminal investigation, if it is warranted, based on their relationship with the victims, families and witnesses, and thousands of hours of work into this case.

"If such evidence does not exist, as was previously stated, it’s ethically prudent to be upfront and honest with the families and tell as much instead of prolonging hope and misplacing blame. If such evidence does exist, but the County wishes for the Department to take over the investigation, we are willing to do so," Bush wrote.

What has happened so far

No state agency has investigated the attack, which was carried out by a student gunman who killed four students and injured seven others. The shooting took place shortly after the student met with school counselors to address troublesome statements and drawings that a teacher saw on his math worksheet.

The school district hired a third-party firm, Guidepost Solutions, to conduct an investigation into the school's role in the attack in the days leading up and the day of the shooting. That 572-page report, released in October 2023, outlined missteps and failures by the district's former superintendent and two former members of his cabinet that allowed the killer to slip through the school's threat assessment and suicide intervention systems. But it did not lead to any criminal charges.

McDonald's office issued first-degree murder and terrorism charges for school shooter Ethan Crumbley based on an investigation by the Oakland County Sheriff's Department on the day of the attack. He is serving a life sentence, but attorneys have appealed his pleading. Crumbley's mother and father were later charged with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of four students by McDonald's office, also based on reports from the Sheriff's Office.

In March, McDonald said her office lacked sufficient evidence to file charges against school employees for their missteps in handling the shooter before and on the day of the attack.

In the weeks and months after the attack, the Oxford school board refused three offers from Nessel to conduct an independent investigation into the attack. Those offers were made one week after the attack in December 2021 and again in May and June of 2022.

In May 2022, after the school board rejected her third offer, Nessel accused board members of being "more focused on limiting liability" than responding to the concerns of the community and investigating the shooting.

Yet parents of the slain students kept asking Nessel for another two years to open an investigation after some Oxford board members resigned or did not seek reelection. Today, the current board does not contain any members who were in place at the time of the attack or immediately after.

St. Juliana and Oxford father Buck Myre, whose son was among the slain students, said they personally asked Nessel to act through emails, phone calls and conversations with her staff.

In August, the current Oxford school board called on the Michigan Legislature to mandate and fund a comprehensive, independent review of the emergency response. That same month, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she supported a thorough and independent review of the police and emergency response. Both requests came after The News reported earlier in the month that there were questions regarding possible emergency dispatch delays to the school on the day of the attack.

McDonald: St. Juliana a fierce advocate

St. Juliana sent the memo to the Attorney General Office's last month and again on Friday.

In a separate letter to St. Juliana, McDonald described the father as a fierce advocate for his daughter and the other students who were murdered who has demanded accountability for everyone who failed them.

"You attended nearly every court hearing for the shooter and his parents, including both trials," McDonald wrote. "Those convictions brought accountability for those three individuals. Still, you have asked me many times whether I would charge individuals associated with the school. Each time I have told you that I have not seen evidence that would allow me to bring charges against any of those individuals."

On Sept. 16, 2024, according to the letter, St. Juliana came to McDonald's office and asked again about charges against the school, specifically referencing staff who were identified in the Guidepost report who failed to perform their duties or who failed to cooperate with the Guidepost investigation.

"As we discussed at that time, neither my office nor Guidepost can conduct a criminal investigation. I can only make decisions based on the information provided to me by law enforcement, and Guidepost must rely on the cooperation of individuals who have information to share that information," McDonald wrote.

"At the end of the meeting, you asked me to provide you with an analysis of what can be done to accomplish a complete investigation, not just for the benefit of your families, and not just for the purpose of criminal charges, but for the benefit of everyone in our State, and for the future victims whose lives could be saved if we are willing to learn the lessons the Oxford shooting could teach us," she wrote.

"We are aware of two mechanisms with historical precedent that can be used to accomplish such an investigation," McDonald wrote. "First, the Michigan Attorney General has the authority to conduct an investigation using the resources of their Criminal Investigative Division. Second, the Governor has the authority to create a special task force."

St. Juliana and Myre and their wives met with Whitmer in January to discuss the attack. The governor came to Oxford to meet with the families privately for 90 minutes, St. Juliana told The News. The families asked the governor to form a task force to investigate the attack, St. Juliana said. Whitmer created the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, but it did not result in a full-scale investigation of the shooting or the actions of school employees.

St. Juliana's attorney, Michael L. Pitt, wrote a letter to Nessel and her office on Oct. 23 that included the legal opinion from McDonald and said there is sufficient evidence already developed to open an investigation into six former school employees, one current and former members of the school board.

Pitt said he and St. Juliana met with McDonald on Sept. 16. Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams and Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast also attended the meeting.

"Ms. McDonald’s position was quite clear: If a law enforcement agency brings to her a well-prepared investigation regarding the conduct of the above named individuals, she will decide, based on the evidence presented, whether to initiate a criminal prosecution," Pitt wrote.

Pitt's firm provided a memo he drafted to Nessel's office that describes possible criminal charges against the group to include willful neglect of duty by a public officer, a misdemeanor punished with one year in jail or up to a $1,000 fine, and misconduct in office, a five-year felony.

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