No charges to be filed in fight involving Oklahoma nonbinary teen Nex Benedict, prosecutor says

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 193 points –
No charges to be filed in fight involving Oklahoma nonbinary teen Nex Benedict, prosecutor says
apnews.com

An Oklahoma district attorney said Thursday he doesn’t plan to file any charges in the case of Nex Benedict, the nonbinary 16-year-old Owasso teenager whose death following a fight in a high school bathroom was ruled a suicide.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a statement that after reviewing the investigation by the Owasso Police Department, he agreed with an assessment from detectives that the fight between the teen and three girls was an “instance of mutual combat” and that charges were not warranted.

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Since when can a minor legally consent to mutual combat?

Right? Also, since when does "mutual combat" involving a death not result in a charge to anyone?

I believe adults would be charged for assault, though proving that this fight “caused” Nix’s death is much harder. If the suicide note says something about it, there would still be a tough case.

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Of course he doesn't. Fucking fascists.

Equal protection under the law!

Is this not the teen who was assaulted in a restroom, received a head trauma as a result, was given half assed medical care, then died like 14 hours later? How is that suicide?

Nex actually was the first to commit an assault, by throwing water on some girls that in all likelihood totally deserved it.

It does appear to be a suicide by intentional overdose of two prescription medications. It seems overwhelmingly likely that the fight/beating contributed, but that doesn't amount to murder.

Neither Benadryl nor Prozac are known to be fatal. The levels found in Nex's system were not elevated. There are no known conflicts with the drugs. Please stop spreading these conservative lies to cover another murder by conservatives.

I know someone who OD'd on Benadryl, ended up in a medically induced coma, and barely survived. People most definitely die from Benadryl overdoses. It is in the top 15 of drug overdose deaths. That article also explains that Benadryl is known to be used for intentional drug overdoses.

I'm not discounting your idea that conservatives are lying and trying to cover up some of the facts about this case, and I am most certainly hoping for some sort of justice for Nex, but this part of your comment is just straight up misinformation.

Do you somehow have a source on the levels found in their system? That could absolutely make a difference in your claims, but the autopsy report hasn't been released, yet, so idk where you are getting that.

A quick search turned up legitimate sources for both Benadryl and Prozac overdoses being potentially fatal, as well as a list of serious interactions. Fatal dosages are generally not available for combinations of different drugs but, generally speaking, interactions make overdoses far more likely.

Short of any credible counter information, the coroner's report is the appropriate (and only) legitimate source.

I am firmly against the right on these issues, but not to the point where I will start chasing conspiracy theories like they do.

Parts of this country are so profoundly broken.

The Bible following parts.

They don't "bible follow" the "bible title mention". Imagine a trump voter sitting down with the patience and focus to read a whole book?

Should push for federal hate crime charges.

I would point out that those three girls have to live with what they did for life but given that they were just following their religion I doubt they will feel anything except for joy.

Americans please, I'm begging you, if you actually care about this, go organise a protest this should be on the level of the George Floyd protests.

We need much more than protest. We need action.

The plague of conservatism cannot be cured by protest alone.

I mean, we should definitely do something, but the George Floyd protests failed to make any lasting change.

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Steve Kunzweiler

From Wikipedia:

“Kunzweiler and his wife, Dr. Christine Kunzweiler, have three daughters. In September 2022, a daughter with mental illness stabbed Kunzweiler multiple times but he managed to survive.[57] He is mentioned in the podcast Panic Button: The April Wilkens Case as having confronted a Tulsa social worker about how domestic violence advocates need to get survivors to testify, otherwise they are not really being abused.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kunzweiler

But if I got into a fight with another adult and killed them I could and would be charged with at least manslaughter.

Of course no charges were filed. Conservatives proactively encourage this kind of murder. They cheer and giggle gleefully when an LGBTQ person is murdered. This is just who conservatives are at their core.

Historically, an infestation of conservatism has never been cured by pacifism.

I looked into mutual combat a while back, it's not actually a legal thing. Rather it's a consequence of it being really hard to prosecute people for fighting when both parties willingly participated.

It can be explicitly legalized. This is from Texas:

CONSENT AS DEFENSE TO ASSAULTIVE CONDUCT. (a) The victim's effective consent or the actor's reasonable belief that the victim consented to the actor's conduct is a defense to prosecution