More charges filed against woman in Missouri teen's suicide [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press
Updated 12:18 pm, Tuesday, November 21, 2017

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — More charges have been filed against the former manager of a small-town Missouri Dairy Queen accused of bullying a teenage employee so relentlessly that he killed himself.

A special prosecutor filed an amended criminal complaint Monday against Harley Branham, 22, of Fayette. It adds two counts each of aggravated stalking, third-degree assault and harassment. She was charged in February with second-degree involuntary manslaughter in the Dec. 21 death of 17-year-old Kenneth Suttner.

The amended complaint alleges that Branham harassed and repeatedly called Suttner, causing him "emotional distress," before he fatally shot himself outside his family's home.

Branham's preliminary hearing is scheduled for next week. Her attorney, Jeffrey Hilbrenner, didn't immediately return a phone or email message Tuesday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/More-charges-filed-against-woman-in-Missouri-12374044.php

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Inquest finds teen’s suicide caused by bullying at work, school
By Alan Burdziak / [e-mail] | 815-1718
Posted Feb 1, 2017 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 1, 2017 at 10:30 AM

. . .

At Suttner’s job, Branham repeatedly ridiculed him and made him do tasks she didn’t have others do, including cleaning the floor by hand while lying on his stomach, former co-workers said. She once threw a cheeseburger at Suttner because he made it incorrectly, Allison Bennett, a former co-worker, said.

Branham testified briefly, denying she had ever bullied Suttner or made him do anything meant to demean or embarrass him. Any insults she said to Suttner were done in jest, she said, and he took it in stride.

“There’s a lot of people at Dairy Queen saying I was the reason” he killed himself, Branham said, “but I don’t understand why it would be that way.”

Lexie Graves, who said Suttner was her best friend, testified she had seen students pick on Suttner in virtually every area of the school building.

More:
http://www.columbiatribune.com/6b4ec3e4-94e8-5696-b854-9ff48cf768f1.html