Girl in stabbing case challenges confession
Slender Man suspect was 12 when she waived rights
Waukesha — For the second time this month, the judge in the Slender Man stabbing case heard details surrounding the confession of one of the two girls charged as adults in the crime.
Lawyers for Anissa Weier say she was too young at age 12 to understand and knowingly waive her rights to remain silent or have an attorney when she agreed to be interrogated.
An expert testified that in his opinion, based on assessments he made in the first month after her arrest, Weier did not have an adequate understanding of the legal impact of giving up those rights, and her father testified that he never discussed the topic with his daughter.
“Why would any parent discuss with a 12-year-old what Miranda rights mean?” Bill Weier asked.
Lawyers for Morgan Geyser put evidence about her arrest and interrogation on the record last week. Defense lawyers and prosecutors will submit arguments in writing and Circuit JudgeMichael Bohren will rule in February on whether the girls’ in-custody statements will be admissible as evidence at their separate trials.
Both girls were 12 on May 31, 2014, when prosecutors say they lured a sixthgrade classmate into some woods, stabbed her 19 times and left her to die. The victim crawled to a path where she was discovered by a passing bicyclist. She survived multiple surgeries and returned to school that fall.
Geyser, 14, and Weier, 15, are charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Each has entered pleas of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect and have also sought to suppress incriminating statements each made to police. The girls said they attacked their friend to appease Slender Man, a fictional internet character.
On Thursday, Waukesha police detective Michelle Trussoni testified about her three-hour recorded interrogation of Weier, parts of which were played back. She asks if Weier has ever heard of Miranda rights and the girl says she has not. Trussoni said she read the warnings from the department’s printed handout.
Weier’s attorney, Joseph Smith Jr., asked if Trussoni stopped after the explanation of each right and inquired about Weier’s understanding and tried to get Weier to explain it back to prove she understood. Trussoni said she did not.
Trussoni said Weier agreed to waive the rights and discuss what had happened earlier in the day. “There was no hesitation. She went right into talking,” Trussoni said.
Smith asked her why she would continue the interview after Weier expressed delusional beliefs in Slender Man.
“I didn’t quite perceive it as delusional,” the detective said, because Weier said she had learned of Slender Man from the internet, not just created him in her own mind. Because the girl was so clear and responsive, Trussoni said, “it never crossed my mind” that Weier was delusional.
Anthony Jurek, a forensic psychologist who interviewed Weier three times in June 2014, said he gave Weier a battery of tests specifically designed to measure her competence to waive her Miranda rights. They revealed that Weier believed her right to remain silent only lasted until police began asking questions and that if she didn’t answer, that fact could be used against her, that a judge could ultimately make her answer and that a lawyer could assist her at a trial.
Furthermore, he said, Weier scored higher than the average 12-year-old on compliance to authority.
But Jurek said he wouldn’t go as far as to say her statement to Trussoni was involuntary, noting that the detective was in no way coercive.
Smith asked Trussoni if she was so intent on making Weier comfortable by offering food, drink and a blanket, why she didn’t also ask if she wanted to talk with her parents.
Her father testified that he and Weier’s mother went to the police station twice and were not allowed to see their daughter. Wisconsin law allows police to question juveniles without their parents’ permission or presence.