Crumbley's Back In Court Tuesday Seeking Bond Reduction

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI — Jennifer and James Crumbley were scheduled to appear in a Rochester Hills court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing. It will be the couple's first court appearance since their lawyers again asked a judge to last week to reduce the couple's bond from $500,000 to $100,000 each.

Defense lawyers argued in a court filing that prosecutors unfairly portrayed the couple as "bad parents" during the preliminary exam. In addition, the defense team maintained the couple had no idea their child was planning the deadly attack prosecutors accused their son of carrying out at Oxford High School on Nov. 30. Defense lawyers also insisted the couple does not pose a flight risk.

Prosecutors, on the other hand were expected to again deny the amended bond request, as they accused the couple of ignoring their son's desperate pleas for help leading up to the deadly attack at Oxford High School, where they said the couple's son shot four students to death and wounded seven other people.

The judge was expected to rule on the amended bond request Tuesday. The couple was already once denied a lower bond by a Rochester Hills judge.

During the couple's last pretrial hearing, Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews assigned each parent an independent lawyer out of concern a conflict of interest could happen, since the couple is using two lawyers from the same law firm.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were each charged with four count of involuntary manslaughter in connection to the deadly shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30. Authorities tracked the couple down in a Detroit warehouse after they went missing when prosecutors announced charges against them. Defense lawyers maintained they were seeking to turn themselves in.

Jennifer and James Crumbley's son was charged with multiple felonies, including four counts of premeditated first-degree of murder, assault with intent to murder and terrorism causing death in connection to the Oxford High School shooting. He pleaded insanity through his lawyer. His next court date was scheduled for Thursday.