Public outrage has consumed the Waukesha County District Attorney after she failed to notify Morgan Geyser’s victim, Payton Leutner and her family, that the Slender Man attacker was on the run.
Boese was notified by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services that the attacker — who was charged with attempted homicide after she stabbed her friend in an attempt to appease the fictional character “Slender Man”— was on the run 12 hours after cutting off his ankle bracelet and having fled from his group home.
“No one did contact them,” WCDA Lesli Boese said, adding that Geyser was in the custody of the state Department of Health Services. “I would have expected that the Department of Health Services would have contacted them to let them know.”
“I was informed yesterday morning (Sunday) about Ms. Geyser escaping from her placement,” she said on Monday. Boese’s office’s victim/witness coordinator immediately “contacted the victim and her family to make sure they knew about it. They didn’t know anything about it. We wanted to make sure they were safe and had a plan in place.”
This incident adds to the controversies revolving victims’ rights that have hit the Wisconsin DHS in recent years.
In Oct. 2023, State Attorney General Josh Kaul’s office imperiled a federal audit into his office of crime victims’ services, after it jeopordized sexual assault and domestic violence grants throughout the state.
The AG failed to respond to an open records request for roughly 18 months, while the state Department of Corrections repeatedly failed to notify victims and their families of paroles and parole hearings that involved some of the most brutal murderers in state history.
Both of the agencies — the state Department of Health Services and Department of Corrections —are under Gov. Tony Evers appointees.
These failures from the state could have been prevented under Marsy’s Law, a constitutional amendment approved by nearly 75% of Wisconsin voters in 2019.
The law provided victims with 16 specific rights, which included the right to privacy, a timely notice of the release of those accused of a crime, full restitution, and notification of all proceedings related to their case upon request. (RELATED: Victims’ Rights Law At Center of Bradley-Taylor Wisconsin Supreme Court Election)
Despite the law’s broad bi-partisan support, state judges such as Court of Appeals Judge Chris Taylor, who has filed for a seat on the State Supreme Court, have opposed the law in the past.
Back when Taylor held a seat in the state legislature, Taylor voted against the law in 2017 and 2019, before it was referred to voters as a possible constitutional amendment.
