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Court Rejects Slender Man Suspect Morgan Geyser’s Request To Lower $500,000 Bail

By Ny MaGee
Published on: 09:56 PST, May 19, 2016

Last month, a Waukesha County judge refused to reduce Slender Man stabbing suspect Morgan Geyser’s $500,000 bail and release her into the custody of her grandfather under house arrest. She appealed her denial of bond, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reported, and now an appeals court has rejected the motion to review the judge’s decision. Geyser and her former classmate are accused of being motivated by the fictional character, Slender Man, to stab their friend 19 times and leave her for dead.

Fourteen-year-old Geyser argued to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals that being denied bond violated excessive bail laws, according to USA Today. She tried convincing the court that she is no longer dangerous, and would be supervised by electronic monitoring. Earlier this year, her lawyers asked that the bond be reduced to $5,000 and that she be allowed to live with family. The judge denied her request.

Morgan and Anissa Weier were 12-years-old when they allegedly stabbed Payton Leutner on May 31, 2014, in Waukesha, a suburb of Milwaukee. They were arrested hours after the incident and told police that they committed the crime to honor The Slender Man, a fictional internet character. Both girls are being charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Leutner survived her injuries.

Both Geyser and Weier have appealed to have their cases moved to juvenile court, but those requests have not been granted, and there’s no date by when that decision has to be made.

Weier made a similar bond reduction request last month, which was also denied. The judge said the $500,000 bond amount is appropriate considering the nature of the crimes and the risk of flight is high. Geyser, who suffers from schizophrenia, was committed to a state mental hospital last year, and a medical evaluation revealed that she told professionals that she did not want medication because it might make her “friends” — fictional characters from Harry Potter and Slender Man — disappear, notes The Daily Mail. She also confessed that she believed Slender Man would hurt her or her family if she did not murder Leutner.

The judge ordered not guilty pleas for both girls after their lawyers “stood mute” during a hearing last year. Morgan has since said that she no longer has contact with Slender Man, and her lawyers have stated that their client has shown regret and remorse over the crime. Since being discharged back to the Washington County Juvenile Detention Center, Geyser stays alone in a windowless cell. The teens have been locked up for about two years, and their families say they can’t afford to pay the bail. Geyser’s grandfather is the former police chief for the New Holstein Police Department.

The Slender Man is a fictional supernatural character that originated as an internet meme created by Eric Knudsen in 2009. He is depicted as thin and unusually tall, wearing a black suit with a blank and featureless face. The Slender Man has inspired numerous works of fan fiction known as “creepypasta,” and stories commonly feature him stalking or abducting children. Several fans of the fiction have been connected to violent acts, with the near-fatal stabbing of Leutner being the most notable.

Slender Man character memes will play out on the big screen within the next year, as the New York Times reports that Sony is set to capitalize on this pop culture phenomenon with a feature film. The studio’s Screen Gems offshoot is partnering with Mythology Entertainment on the project, aiming for a production start this fall.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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