In a strange case of legal perversion, a Michigan man who raped a 12-year-old girl has been given joint custody of the child conceived through his crime. In September 2008, Christopher Mirasolo, who was 18 at the time, met the victim and her 13-year-old sister after they snuck out of their home to meet up with a boy. According to The Detroit News, Mirasolo kidnapped the girls and raped them in a vacant house over a two-day period. He freed the girls and threatened to kill them and their family if they told anyone about the crime.
A month later, the 12-year-old girl discovered she was pregnant and Mirasolo was arrested for rape. Facing the possibility of life in prison, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and served less than a year in jail. After being released, he raped another teenage girl and served an additional four years in prison.
Mirasolo’s pre-teen victim gave birth to a son, who is now 8. According to the rape victim’s lawyer, Rebecca Kiessling, the woman applied for child support after DNA testing proved that Mirasolo was the father of the child. Sanilac County Circuit Judge Gregory S. Ross ordered Mirasolo’s name be added to the child’s birth certificate and ordered that he also have joint custody and visitation with his son. Kiessling filed an objection with Judge Ross and stated: “This is insane. Nothing has been right about this since it was originally investigated. He was never properly charged and should still be sitting behind bars somewhere, but the system is victimizing my client, who was a child herself when this all happened.”
When Ross handed down his decision, the address of the victim was given to her rapist and she was ordered not to move more than 100 miles away from the county or she would be charged with contempt. Kiessling is now seeking protection for her client under the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act and will next appear in court on Oct. 25, 2017.
