Judge rescinds order in sex offender custody case
DETROIT — A Michigan judge on Tuesday rescinded his order that gave a convicted sex offender joint legal custody of a child born to a woman who said the man raped her when she was 12.
Sanilac County Judge Gregory
Ross stressed that he was unaware of Christopher Mirasolo’s two previous criminal sexual conduct convictions — including one concerning the boy’s mother — when he issued his original ruling last month. The new order grants Mirasolo no parental rights.
“I did not know that the defendant had raped the plaintiff, which resulted in the child being conceived,” Ross wrote in Tuesday’s order. “The question that everyone is asking is, ‘How could a judge do such a thing?’ The answer is that this judge was not aware, did not have knowledge of the fact that the defendant raped the plaintiff, and the child was born as a result.”
The case started when the 21-year-old mother sought state assistance for her 8-year-old son. As a condition of receiving such assistance, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services required the mother to cooperate with pursuing paternity and support for the child, according to prosecutors.
A DNA test confirmed Mirasolo, 27, was the boy’s biological father. Although he never sought parental rights or custody, Mirasolo was granted joint legal custody and ordered to pay child support, while the mother was granted sole physical custody.
In Michigan, joint legal custody enables both parents to share decision-making authority about a child’s welfare.
Mirasolo spent 6½ months in jail after pleading guilty to attempted criminal sexual conduct in the woman’s 2008 case, according to the woman’s attorney. Mirasolo also spent time in prison for a 2010 criminal sexual conduct conviction, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records.