WAUKESHA – Morgan Geyser returned to the courthouse Thursday for the first time since her sentencing in the Slender Man stabbing case more than four years ago.
Since 2018, Geyser, now 20, has been committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute after being found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the case.
Earlier this month, Geyser petitioned for conditional release from the hospital to continue her care in the community.
She appeared briefly, wearing orange jail clothing. Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, who committed Geyser for 40 years, agreed to appoint three doctors to examine Geyser over the summer and to file reports by the end of August. Another hearing would be scheduled sometime after the reports are submitted.
All three doctors — one each recommended by the defense, the state and Bohren — have previous experience in the Slender Man case. They are Deborah Collins, Kenneth Robbins and Robert Rawski.
Bohren said Stawski is no longer taking appointments, but that he would reach out to him about doing so for Geyser. If not, Bohren said he would ask Brooke Lundbohm, who also has prior experience in the case.
Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz appeared for the state.
Geyser spoke only briefly with her attorney, Anthony Cotton, and did not address the court before she was taken out of the courtroom to be returned Thursday to the mental health institute. She has been held at the Waukesha County Jail since Tuesday and was not doing well there, her mother Angie Geyser said.
For nearly seven years, Geyser has been getting the kind of psychiatric treatment she should have started when she was an undiagnosed schizophrenic 12-year-old. The condition was discovered during competency reviews in the early stages of the infamous case.
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Geyser and Anissa Weier, also 12 at the time, plotted the stabbing death of their sixth grade friend and classmate Payton Leutner in May 2014 to appease or impress Slender Man, a fictional internet character.
Leutner survived 19 stab wounds and was discovered by a passing bicyclist after she had crawled to the edge of woods at a Waukesha park where the attack occurred.
Charged as adults, the girls’ case spawned international headlines and documentaries before they each pleaded guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Weier, who experts testified was not as ill as Geyser but had come under her influence, agreed to not seek release from institutional commitment for three years; Bohren granted it last year.
Weier’s commitment order at sentencing was for 25 years, since she pleaded to a lesser charge than Geyser, whose plea was to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Geyser did the actual stabbing.
Bohren committed Geyser for 40 years. Thursday was her first time appearing before him for a hearing on a release request, which by law she can petition for every six months.
Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism