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Court Error – Discharge from Adult Court

By: Derek Hawkins//October 7, 2020//

Court Error – Discharge from Adult Court

By: Derek Hawkins//October 7, 2020//

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WI Court of Appeals – District II

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Morgan E. Geyser

Case No.: 2018AP1897-CR

Officials: Neubauer, C.J., Reilly, P.J., and Gundrum, J.

Focus: Court Error – Discharge from Adult Court

On May 31, 2014, twelve-year-old Morgan Geyser, with the aid of twelve-year-old Anissa Weier, repeatedly stabbed her friend, the twelve-year-old victim in this case. Geyser’s attack brought the victim to the brink of death, but she very fortunately survived. As a result of the attack, Geyser and Weier were charged in adult court with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, with use of a dangerous weapon, as parties to the crime.

A preliminary hearing was held to determine whether probable cause existed that Geyser and Weier had committed that adult-court-jurisdiction conferring offense and thus whether the matter should remain in adult court. Despite the efforts of Geyser and Weier to convince the court the charge should be reduced to attempted second-degree intentional homicide—resulting in a loss of exclusive original adult-court jurisdiction—the court found probable cause that both defendants committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide and bound them over for trial in adult court. In this appeal, Geyser claims the court erred in binding her over rather than discharging her from adult court. We conclude the court did not err.

As the case was pending, Geyser filed a motion to suppress a statement she made to Waukesha Police Department Detective Thomas Casey following the attack.  She claimed, and claims on appeal, that she did not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive her Miranda rights prior to providing this statement, and thus the statement was unconstitutionally procured, and the circuit court erred in declining to suppress it. We need not decide whether the court erred in denying this motion because we conclude that even if it did err, such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt due to the additional, unchallenged and overwhelming evidence in this case.

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.

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