Defendant gets Nothing Much in the Case of the Dead Fat Kid

For a few weeks, it was an Internet "outrage." Harley Branham, the manager at a Dairy Queen, was charged with manslaughter for "bullying" a fat kid on her crew, who subsequently committed suicide. The case poked along, and the trial setting was canceled and the charge suddenly dismissed. The case poked along some more, and the state filed some new charges. Nothing happened and nothing happened, and the media finally lost interest. The attention span of the Internet outrage mob had been exhausted.

I decided to check today to see what came of it all, and it turned out to be nothing much. The fat kid is still dead. Harley Branham copped to a single misdemeanor a little less than a year ago, and was sentenced to 30 days "house arrest" and two years "probation." The Dairy Queen later fired her for reasons unrelated to the dead fat kid. None of it got much fanfare in the media. What story anyone troubled to write about it can be found at the following link:

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/harley-branham-pleads-guilty-to-misdemeanor-assault-in-suttner-case/article_1707a29c-a4bd-11e9-bc7b-f30f4eeaea24.html