Judge OKs release plan for woman who stabbed a classmate to please Slender Man
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Scott Wagner signed off Thursday on the plan to release Morgan Geyser, now 22, from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, a psychiatric hospital where she has spent the last seven years.
In April, prosecutors objected to Geyser's original conditional release plan after the mother of the victim, Payton Leutner, expressed concern that Geyser's group home was located eight miles away from Leutner. The judge then ordered the Department of Health Services to draft a new plan, which was approved Thursday. Details of the plan were not shared in court.
Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.
Geyser and Weier fled after the attack but were arrested as they were walking on Interstate 94. They told investigators they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man's servants and feared he would hurt their families if they didn't follow through. They had planned to walk to Slender Man's mansion in northern Wisconsin after the attack, they said.
Leutner barely survived the attack. Geyser ultimately pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2017 but claimed she wasn't responsible because she was mentally ill. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren committed her to a psychiatric hospital for 40 years in 2018, but the judge ruled in January she could be released after three experts testified she has made progress battling mental illness.
State health officials argued in March that Geyser couldn't be trusted after learning that she hadn't told her therapists that she had read a novel about murder and black market organ sales. They also alleged that she had been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia and sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.
Cotton countered that Geyser only read what the facility allowed, and staff knew she had been communicating with the collector. He added that she stopped talking to the man in 2024 after she discovered he was selling things she sent him. Bohren concluded that Geyser wasn't trying to hide anything and ordered state health officials to continue developing a release plan.
Wagner took over Geyser's release request after Bohren retired this past April.
Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon in 2017, but like Geyser claimed she was mentally ill and not responsible for her actions. She was committed to 25 years in a mental hospital but was granted release in 2021 after agreeing to live with her father and to wear a GPS monitor.
The case has drawn widespread attention in part because of the girls' fascination with the Slender Man character. Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious specter photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He's typically depicted as a slim, spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face. He has grown into a popular boogeyman and has appeared in video games, online stories and a 2018 movie.
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BBC News
23 minutes ago
- BBC News
Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world
When Jack Posobiec walked into the Department of Justice in Washington, DC last February, he thought he would finally get some answers about Jeffrey when he and other MAGA supporters were given essentially just rehashed, already-public material - and when the government put a damper on the release of any new information this July - they balked."We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been. And it didn't have to be," Posobiec posted on social media on 7 Donald Trump is finding it hard to shake loose the conspiracy theories that have animated his base since he first broke through into Republican politics a decade ago. Posobiec, who emerged from the fringes of the internet in 2016 when he spread false rumours about a child abuse ring based in a Washington DC restaurant - a conspiracy theory that became known as Pizzagate - is just one of many MAGA die-hards who believes officials are hiding key truths about Epstein's life and disgraced financier and convicted sex offender died by suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019 while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking a recent podcast hosted by Breitbart News editor Alex Marlow, Posobiec said the MAGA base see this case as shorthand for the thorough rot of the so-called "deep state"."It's not that they care about Epstein personally," he said. 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His entry into the once-crowded world of Republican Party politics a decade ago came as he amplified the false theory that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United however, the world of conspiracy is biting back. Epstein's crimes are real and horrific, and there remains the possibility that further information could emerge about they have also become subsumed by grander narratives – Pizzagate, and later QAnon, the sprawling interactive conspiracy theory that swamped the internet during Trump's first term, pushing the idea that the highest echelons of society were controlled by a child-abusing elite cabal. 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But a subset of extremely online MAGA supporters are still deeply passionate about the Epstein orders officials to release Epstein court documentsProsecutor in Diddy and Epstein cases fired by justice departmentTrump's Epstein strategy could pit him against loyal supporters Several MAGA voices, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have alleged that Epstein was employed by the Israeli security services. And among more extreme elements of the movement, the conspiracy theories around Epstein sometimes veer into the Rothschild said most of the people in MAGA world are simply itching for more information – if it indeed exists – about the financier's connections with Bill Clinton and other Democrats and Trump opponents. 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Targeting the president could backfire when it comes to their own followers."Many of the major influencers are furious," Rothschild said, "and while they might not take it out on Trump, they might take it out on the GOP (Republican Party) in general."Trump has so far stood by Pam Bondi, his attorney general. But she, Patel and Bongino may increasingly feel the pressure if MAGA's conspiracy wing continues to demand more files - whether or not they actually exist.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Lawyer argues Call of Duty maker can't be held responsible for actions of Texas school shooter
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Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump sues Wall Street Journal over Epstein report, seeks $10 billion
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Attorney General Pam Bondi had pledged months earlier to reveal major revelations about Epstein, including "a lot of names" and "a lot of flight logs." With pressure to release the Epstein files building, Trump on Thursday said he directed Bondi to ask a court to release grand jury testimony about Epstein. The U.S. government on Friday filed a motion in Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of Epstein and his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021 was convicted of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls. She is serving a 20-year sentence. "Public officials, lawmakers, pundits, and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the filing. "After all, Jeffrey Epstein is the most infamous pedophile in American history." Blanche called the transcripts "critical pieces of an important moment in our nation's history," and said "the time for the public to guess what they contain should end." He said prosecutors would work to redact all victim-identifying information before making anything public. The Journal said the letter bearing Trump's name was part of a leather-bound birthday book for Epstein that included messages from other high-profile people. The newspaper said the letter contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appeared to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. The newspaper said the letter concludes "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret," and featured the signature "Donald." Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 - after the birthday book was allegedly produced - and he was arrested that year before accepting a plea deal. Epstein died just over a month after he was arrested for a second time and charged with sex-trafficking conspiracy. Trump, who was photographed with Epstein multiple times in social situations in the 1990s and early 2000s, told reporters in 2019 that he ended his relationship with Epstein before his legal troubles became apparent. In 2002, Trump, a Florida neighbor of Epstein's, was quoted in New York magazine as saying, "I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office in 2019, Trump said he and Epstein had a "falling out" before the financier was first arrested. Trump said he "knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him" but that, "I had a falling out with him. I haven't spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you." The release of the grand jury documents may fall short of what many of Trump's supporters have sought, including case files held by the administration. Grand juries review evidence from prosecutors to determine whether people should be indicted for crimes. This includes hearsay, improperly obtained information and other evidence that prosecutors would not be allowed to present at trial. Transcripts of grand jury proceedings are generally kept secret under federal criminal procedure rules, with limited exceptions. A judge may allow disclosure of grand jury matters in connection with judicial proceedings, or at the request of defendants who believe it could lead to the dismissal of their indictments. It is likely that some material released from grand jury proceedings would be redacted, or blacked out, because of privacy or security concerns.
