A judge decided to take action on an order that previously granted a convicted sex offender joint legal custody over a child. The child was not one they conceived out of love. But out of anger and violence. The man raped the woman, and a baby came out of the crime. Because he was the biological father, the court previously decided that he deserved joint custody, although he was a violent predator who only had a baby because of the crime he committed against the mother of the baby.
Custody was granted to the convicted sex predator after the now 21-year-old mother of the baby applied for state assistance to help raise her 8-year-old son. Because the state wanted to grant the young mother the help she needed, they just decided that she had to look into establishing paternity of the child. In exchange for the check from the state government, which the young mother needed to feed her boy, she agreed to their horrible terms set forth by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
A court ruling last month decided that the mother got sole physical custody over the boy. However, they did grant legal joint custody to 27-year-old Christopher Mirasolo who was proven by DNA to be the boy’s father. Joint legal custody in Michigan allows both parents to share decision-making authority regarding the child’s future.
In other words, Michigan allowed Mirasolo, a convicted child rapist, authority over a boy’s future because he raped a woman and she conceived a child.
Thankfully the mother’s attorney, Rebecca Kiessling refused to honor this “insane” ruling granting custody to the child rapist.
Now Sanilac County Judge Gregory Ross, the very same judge who signed the “insane” order to grant the convicted rapist joint custody of the child, agreed to put the order on hold. A hearing was set to decide the matter once and for all.
Common sense seems to say that it wouldn’t make sense for the state of Michigan to grant joint custody of a child to a child rapist – however, common sense does not mean common practice.
Meanwhile, Mirasolo’s attorney, Barbara Yockey, is fighting hard to grant her client the custody he desires. She said she and Kiessling spoke: “and have agreed on a private resolution” that will then be presented to the judge to make the final decision.
Yockey notes that Mirasolo never initiated the custody case – it was the state of Michigan that tried to force the issue.
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The prosecutors also clarified that the judge’s order did not require the mother to share custody.
“Mr. Mirasolo never requested any determination of paternity, visitation, or custody… The mother was not ordered to provide any visitation of any kind.”
Michigan state law does prohibit custody or parenting time for any parent of a child who was conceived through rape or violent or unwanted sexual assault or abuse. But this law was only introduced in 2016, by Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons.
“This is exactly why I introduced and fought for the (law),” Lyons said. “What I didn’t anticipate is a judge who at best is unaware of Michigan law, or at worst, places rapists above victims.”
