DOC fires employee after Slender Man defendant escape

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The state Department of Corrections fired an employee and suspended two others following the November escape of a woman who was a defendant in the “Slender Man” stabbing in 2014.

That comes after the three staff members were placed on leave for the response to 23-year-old Morgan Geyser’s Nov. 22 escape from a Madison group home, prompting scrutiny from state lawmakers on the department’s response and protocols. The two staff members who remain employed received a five-day unpaid suspension and a three-day unpaid suspension respectively.

Department of Corrections spokesperson Beth Hardtke said she was unable to provide other details on the nature of the department’s personnel review. A separate agency review of the department’s response to Geyser’s escape is complete as well, but Hardtke said that would need to be provided in a records request. The request has been filed.

The Department of Corrections is responsible for the state’s GPS monitoring program and is responsible for notifying when a monitoring device is tampered with.

The department’s reviews follow Geyser’s escape over two months ago, when she cut off an ankle monitor and was later found in Posen, Illinois, with her friend Chad “Charly” Mecca. It took 12 hours for the department’s staff members to report Geyser’s escape to local authorities.

Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier were charged with attempted homicide of their friend, Payton Leutner, who was stabbed 19 times near Davids Park in Waukesha in May 2014. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

The two believed they were doing the bidding of the fictional character known as Slender Man. Geyser and Weier were found not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease in 2017 and committed to long-term institutional care.

Geyser spent seven years in confinement before Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren gave Geyser conditional release. The state Department of Health Services oversees the conditional release program for people with mental illness who have committed a crime.

When she escaped from the group home, it prompted members of the state’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee to examine the Department of Correction’s handling of the issue. At the time, Department of Corrections Secretary Jared Hoy told lawmakers in a letter the department had initiated a review and revised its policies on alerts following someone tampering with an ankle monitor.

In a Dec. 16 letter, Geyser’s attorney Anthony Cotton told a judge Geyser will not fight the revocation of her conditional release, which the state asked a court to revoke after her escape.