A judge has granted joint custody to a man who raped a 12-year-old girl and fathered her child.
Christopher Mirasolo, 27, was convicted of the sex attack nine years ago, but has now proved his paternity in court in Michigan.
Judge Gregory S. Ross, 24th Circuit Court Family Division of Sanilac County awarded parenting time and joint legal custody to Mirasolo and gave the attacker his victim’s home address.
But the rapist is understood not to have initiated the case, or to have plans to be involved with the child.
According to Rebecca Kiessling, who is representing the victim, the sentence for Mirasolo’s crime of rape of a minor should have been at least 25 years behind bars, but he only served a few months, because it was judged as ‘attempted’ rape, though the victim was pregnant.
Rebecca Kiessling is representing the woman on a pro bono basis
She says he served six-and-a-half months before being released, committing another offence, and serving four years.
In a statement, Ms Kiessling said: “Objections and a motion will be filed on behalf of the rape victim mother on Friday morning, October 6th, with a hearing on Wednesday the 25th at 2:30pm.
“This case is believed to be the first case of its kind in Michigan, and perhaps in the U.S., in which a rape victim will seek protection under the new Rape Survivor Child Custody Act and proves why a rape conviction should not be required.”
Speaking publicly about this case on ‘The Steve Gruber Show’ on radio, she said it was ‘insane’.
She said: “Nothing has been right about this since it was originally investigated. He was never properly charged and should still be sitting behind bars somewhere, but the system is victimising my client, who was a child herself when this all happened.”
In a comment on Facebook, Ms Kiessling added that she thought the victim was ‘screwed over’ because she was told not to press first degree charges, despite being pregnant.
The charge pressed was for third degree sexual conduct, which means it was judged as being ‘attempted’.
Detroit News reports that the victim was one of two people attacked by Mirasolo in September 2008.
Ms Kiessling told Detroit News: “She, her 13-year-old sister and a friend all slipped out of their house one night to meet a boy and the boy’s older friend, Mirasolo, showed up and asked if they wanted to go for a ride.
“He tossed their cellphones away, drove to Detroit where he stole gas from a station and then drove back to Sanilac County, where he kept them captive for two days in a vacant house near a relative, finally releasing the older sister in a park. He threatened to kill them if they told anyone what happened.”
Ms Kiessling is representing the victim on a pro bono basis and the case is being paid for by Right to Life of Michigan.
Ms Kiessling was herself conceived in rape and is a pro-life speaker, advocating the punishment of the rapist not the victim or the child.
source: mirror.co.uk