Morgan Geyser's attorney has requested that the 12-year-old girl's bail be reduced and that she be allowed to move to a facility where she can receive care and treatment for schizophrenia while her attempted homicide legal proceedings continue.
In his motion filed with the court last week, Attorney Anthony Cotton said that the Washington County Juvenile Detention Center where Geyser is currently confined can't meet her needs.
Geyser, along with her co-defendant Anissa Weier, has been charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for nearly stabbing a classmate, Payton Leutner, to death last May, purportedly to try to please a fictitious Internet horror character known as Slender Man.
Need for treatment
A licensed psychologist has testified in court that Geyser has schizophrenia and related mental issues and that Geyser believes she has Vulcan mind control and has an "unyielding belief" in Slender Man.
"The Washington County Juvenile Detention Center is not designed for long-term placement of a child," Cotton said in his motion. "Because the children's jail is not staffed with full-time mental health professionals, no meaningful treatment plan can be devised to address Morgan's psychotic condition.
"Morgan is therefore left to cope, on her own, with her emerging, rare and serious mental illness."
As a result, Cotton says Geyser should be moved to Milwaukee Academy, a residential treatment program for girls in Wauwatosa.
A motion hearing to review Cotton's request is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday, April 24, before Judge Michael Bohren.
Nature of facility
Cotton said Milwaukee Academy's comprehensive program integrates clinical services and has a structured therapeutic environment. The staff, Cotton says, is trained in providing treatment in complex psychiatric cases such as Geyser's.
According to its website, Milwaukee Academy's program is designed to meet the behavioral and emotional needs of adolescent girls who are presenting a pattern of behavioral and mental health symptoms such as emotional disturbance, aggressive behaviors, substance abuse, and self harming behaviors that inhibit their ability to remain safely in their community.
Cotton said Geyser's family would cover the cost of the program and drive her to and from the Milwaukee Academy for her court appearances.
Geyser had earlier received care for her mental issues since her arrest last year. Geyser was transported to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh for about five months in 2014 after she was ruled incompetent to proceed in the court system.
However, she has been at the secure detention center in West Bend since Bohren ruled her competent in December.
Cotton says Geyser's condition has not gotten any better and that she has not shown any violence toward patients, inmates or visitors while at these facilities.
"Morgan desperately needs treatment for her mental illness," Cotton said.
Geyser is being held on a $500,000 cash bond, but Cotton is requesting her bail be modified to a signature bond.
Cotton said his client "presents no meaningful flight risk, and because she has a severe mental illness." Moreover, Cotton adds monetary conditions of bail may be imposed only to ensure a defendant's appearance in court. Cotton said Geyser has never become combative or tried to flee, does not have any friends in the community who could aid her in any attempt to flee and because she's 12 does not know how to drive a car.
Hoping for juvenile court
The court will also hear other arguments from attorneys for both defendants in the coming weeks.
In addition to his motion to allow treatment, Cotton also continues to argue that Geyser's case should be moved to juvenile court. A two-day hearing for Geyser on that issue has been scheduled for June 17-18.
Weier's attorneys will also try to get her case moved to the juvenile court system. A two-day hearing for Weier, 13, who is also charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, is scheduled to begin May 26.
In the adult court system, Geyser and Weier face up to 60 years in prison, with a five-year enhancer penalty. If the case is moved to the juvenile court system, Geyser and Weier would only be held until they are 25 years old.
Geyser allegedly stabbed Leutner, her friend and former Horning Middle School classmate, 19 times in a wooded area outside David's Park in Waukesha last year.
During a preliminary hearing in February, Cotton looked at having Geyser's charges reduced to attempted second-degree intentional homicide due to "mitigating circumstances" Cotton said existed in the case.
He said because Geyser believed Slender Man would harm her family if she didn't kill her friend is the "only plausible" reason the crime committed.
However, Bohren did not agree with Cotton's assessment and kept the case in adult court, saying probable cause of the attempted first-degree intentional homicide existed.