More charges filed against woman in Missouri teen's suicide

[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

[Initech]

1. What a horrible person!

I hope she goes to prison for a very long time.

[LiberalLovinLug]

2. We all have probably met people like this in the past

Suttner was obviously a sensitive person with an inferiority complex or a lack of self esteem. Probably never had the proper support from parents to help build it up. Or he just kept quiet about it to avoid the topic. Thus easy pickin's for bullies.

I was bullied as young teen. Its as if they smell blood in the water. Bullies are cowards, and they feel they can get away with abusing someone that others already abuse, compounding the pain on this one person. And others, who are just teens themselves, go along or watch and do nothing because they'd rather it be that person and not them.

But it takes a certain kind of sociopath to do this in a consistent methodical way. They think they are being admired by others as leaders, making a joke at someones expense for them all to have something to laugh at. Taking delight in another persons desperate attempt to do this 'one more thing' in hopes that it will be the last, and they will then leave them alone. Which they never do.