Lawyers in Slender Man case to file arguments about release

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WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday for time to file written arguments on whether a Wisconsin woman convicted of stabbing a middle-school classmate seven years ago to please the internet horror character Slender Man deserves to be released from a mental-health center.

Anissa Weier, now 19, has asked Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren for conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh.

Bohren sentenced her in December 2017 to 25 years in the institution.

Bohren held a hearing on the request Wednesday and prosecutors said they would like several weeks to prepare briefs on whether Weier should be released. Bohren gave them until March 26 to submit them and Weier’s attorneys until April 9 to respond in writing. He scheduled another hearing for June 11.

In court, Weier spoke only to tell Bohren that she had enough time to talk with her attorneys and was satisfied with them.

Weier and her friend, Morgan Geyser, lured classmate Payton Leutner into a Waukesha park in 2014 following a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier cheered Geyser on. Leutner barely survived. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

Weier and Geyser told detectives they thought if they killed Leutner they would become Slender Man’s servants. Weier’s attorneys spent three years unsuccessfully trying to get her case moved to juvenile court.

If Bohren orders her release, Weier would be assigned state Department of Health Services case managers to track her progress until she’s 37 years old, the length of her commitment.

Geyser is serving a maximum 40-year-old sentence at a mental health facility.