No real surprises here but the Tulsa DA has decided not to press charges in the Nex Benedict case. Steve Kunzweiler released a letter explaining his decision. It reads in part:
The death of Dagney Benedict, also known as Nex Benedict, is a tragedy. It is a tragedy for the family who is grieving over the loss of a life they loved. The reasons why any person commits suicide do not provide answers to those who are left behind. Mostly, we are left with questions about what any one of us could have done to prevent the tragedy from happening in the first place. Many of those questions may never be answered to the satisfaction of the people affected by suicide. Suicide is sad, and our country is beset by far too many instances where insufficient resources are allocated to combat this growing crisis.
…reports indicated that those involved in the fight were antagonizing each other in the days leading up to the fight. None of the students reported this to school administrators or teachers. According to witnesses, the fight was less than one minute in duration after Benedict poured water over two girls while they were in the bathroom. Apparently, comments were directed about how Benedict laughed, which was followed by the water pouring incident…
An important part of the Owasso Police Department’s investigation was the discovery of some brief notes, written by Benedict, which appeared to be related to the suicide. Although the notes do not make any reference to the earlier fight or difficulties at school, the parents indicated that Benedict reported being picked upon for various reasons while at school
Regarding the fight which took place at the Owasso High School, the combatants were all under 18 years of age. Consequently, if charges were justified, those charges would be handled as a delinquent child cause of action in a juvenile court of law. Based upon the investigation of the Owasso Police Department, I am in agreement with their assessment that the filing of juvenile charges is not warranted. From all of the evidence gathered, this fight was an instance of mutual combat. I do not have a reasonable belief that the State of Oklahoma could sustain its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt if charges were presented for prosecution.
Much of this has been known for a while now. The fight was brief and involved mutual combat. None of the injuries from that fight were significant enough to cause death. As the autopsy report released last week indicated, this was an overdose and there was a suicide note left behind. Now we learn that note didn’t even mention the fight or bullying at school. That was on the parent’s mind but apparently not at the forefront of Benedict’s thoughts.
Nevertheless, some activists are upset about the outcome.
The president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (Glaad), Sarah Kate Ellis, criticized the decision by the Tulsa county district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, who had cited as part of his decision that he deemed the incident in which Nex reported three students “coming at me” as “an instance of mutual combat”.
“Time and time again, leaders in Oklahoma have showed that they don’t value Nex’s life, or the lives of other Indigenous and 2STGNC+ [Two Spirit, transgender, and gender-nonconforming+] students,” Ellis said, adding, while calling out the high school Benedict attended: “Everyone from Superintendent Walters and Owasso high school to the unaccredited-since-2009 state medical examiner’s office, the district attorney, and Owasso police department have failed Nex.”
Ellis called for an independent investigation, saying: “We will never stop seeking justice for Nex and we will never stop holding leaders accountable to serving their communities fairly and with compassion.”
Bryan Paddack, the founder of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Rural Oklahoma Pride, condemned the failure of officials to address bullying and discrimination that targets LGBTQ+ youth in comments to KOCO News: “If we can’t report it to our senators, our governors, our president, what makes you think our children are going to want to point it out to our teachers, or principals, when nothing is going to happen?”
The story of Nex Benedict was tragic but it was also a case where activists and the media rushed forward with an incomplete story which was quickly overhyped by many people who filled in the gaps on their own. As I pointed out here, many spread the false claim that Benedict had been beaten to death in the bathroom.
Even once the initial confusion cleared, progressive site Popular Information suggested the police decision to echo a statement released by the school was somehow problematic. The site seemed really excited to tell us murder charges were still on the table.
In an interview with Popular Information, Lieutenant Nick Boatman, a spokesperson for the Owasso Police, said that after Owasso Public Schools issued its release, “they got a lot of hate mail.” The purpose of the police statement, which Boatman said he wrote, was to communicate that the police “have confirmed the school did all those things.” The Owasso Police confirmed the facts, Boatman said, by collecting written statements from school officials, including the school nurse and the school resource officer. Boatman acknowledged that the statement “kind of came across as us being a voice piece for the school.”…
Boatman said the medical examiner did not explicitly tell him that Nex “did not die from something as a result of that fight.” But that’s how Boatman interpreted the medical examiner’s comments. Boatman also said the medical examiner “emphasized they are waiting for toxicology,” which Boatman interpreted as “kind of a red flag.” Boatman said he is “assuming when I get that [toxicology report] back, something’s going to be there.”
Nevertheless, according to a February 9 “Affidavit for Search Warrant” by Detective Penny Hamrick, the Owasso Police suspected “foul play.” The affidavit, which Popular Information obtained, says that the Owasso Police were investigating Nex’s death as a “murder.” Boatman confirmed that, at this point, murder charges are still “on the table.”
As we now know, the police spokesman’s suspicious about the case all turned out to be true. This was not a murder and the toxicology report was key to showing this was a suicide. We also know that police had the suicide note from the day of Benedict’s death, so they had a good idea from the start what had happened even if they couldn’t reveal that right away.
Ultimately, this is a sad story but you get the clear sense it never quite lived up to the national outrage that activists wanted it to be for their own reasons (GLAAD called it a National Wakeup Call). But this wasn’t a murder by a gang of right-wing extremists made inevitable by school bathroom policies. It was a brief fight, stared by Benedict, which lasted only a minute or so.
Still, it should be possible to put the culture war politics that were heaped upon this case aside. A 16-year-old killed herself. A family lost a child. It’s not possible to feel anything but sadness about that. RIP.