WAUKESHA, Wis. — A judge should deny a request to be released by a Wisconsin woman convicted of stabbing a classmate to please the internet horror character Slender Man because she remains a danger to others, a prosecutor argued in response to the petition for conditional release.
Earlier this month, Anissa Weier, 19, asked Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren to release her from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh. Bohren sentenced her in December 2017 to 25 years in the institution after a jury found her not criminally responsible for her role in the stabbing.
Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Kevin Osborne filed a response with the court Friday.
“Her mind is still immature, still forming, and still susceptible to dangerous influences. At this time, she simply cannot safely be released,” Osborne wrote, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Weier and her friend, Morgan Geyser, lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, into a Waukesha park in May 2014 following a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier encouraged Geyser to inflict the injuries. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.
Leutner barely survived her wounds. Weier and Geyser told investigators that they stabbed her because they thought Slender Man was real and attacking Leutner would make them his servants and keep him from killing their families.
“What assurance do we have that she will not do this again, either for a thrill or to please a new friend and because of her situation real, appropriate, friends will be hard to come by. Instead she seems to attract people with myriad psychological issues of their own,” Osbourne argued.
Bohren has scheduled a hearing on the matter June 11. If Bohren orders her release, Weier would be assigned state Department of Health Services case managers to track her progress until she’s 37 years old, the length of her commitment.
Geyser is serving a maximum 40-year-old sentence at a mental health facility.
