I previously wrote a column about the ongoing controversy over statutory rape prosecutions, the subject of prior blogs. Now, Grant County District Attorney Lisa Riniker appears intent on outdoing other prosecutors by charging a 6-year-old boy with first-degree sexual assault for what the family says was playing doctor with a 5-year-old girl.
The toddler is charged with a Class B felony and Riniker rejects criticism that she failed to apply not just discretion but reason. Instead she says “the legislature could have put an age restriction in the statute if it wanted to. The legislature did no such thing.” That apparently is license for Riniker to charge anyone who has progressed beyond the fetus stage (and earlier in those states giving fetuses the status of person — and potential rapists).
Notably, the girl (and her brother who was involved in the game) are the children of a powerful political figure in the county and was not charged.
The boy will be forced to register as a sex offender wen he is 18 and spend the rest of his life under the restrictions imposed on rapists and child molesters. What is astonishing is that Riniker appears to have maintained a willful blindness to the fact that she was prosecuting a toddler. The complaint below states:
Until last week, the District Attorney (DA), Defendant Riniker, was (or caused the) addressing and sending mail to 6 year- old D, rather than to the parents, and that the DA refers to the 6 year-old not by his first name but as “Mr._____” (last name redacted because of the child’s age). Furthermore, she sends or causes to be sent to the 6 year-old paperwork that tells him that he could go to jail if he does not show-up for court.
The boy suffers from ADHD, but neither his disability or his age appears to have relevance to Riniker.
Also named in the lawsuit below are Jan Moravits, a social worker with Grant County Social Services, and Sgt. James Kopp, who recently retired from the Grant County Sheriff’s Department.
The lawsuit alleges 1983 claims for loss of first amendment and due process protections. It also includes an allegation of the negligent infliction of emotional distress. Wisconsin has historically been somewhat skeptical of these claims — only recognizing intentional infliction of emotional distress in 1963. A court explained the continuing unease over the claims in Bowen v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, 183 Wis. 2d 627 (Wis. 1994):
On the other hand, courts have struggled with the tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress, concerned that the negligent conduct did not adequately assure the authenticity of the plaintiff’s claim of severe emotional harm. Courts have historically been apprehensive that psychological injuries would be easy to feign and that suits would be brought for trivial emotional distress more dependent on the peculiar emotional sensitivities of the plaintiff than upon the nature of the tortfeasor’s conduct. People should not, courts reasoned, be able to sue for everyday minor disturbances. Furthermore courts feared that opening the courts to claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress would open the floodgates of litigation and lead to unlimited liability for a negligent tortfeasor.
The difficulty with such claims (despite the compelling facts) is that courts heavily favor government officials in their use of discretionary powers. It is an ironic twist. Most attorneys view this as an abuse of prosecutorial discretion while Riniker will likely argue that the protection of discretionary powers includes the alleged abuse or lack of exercised discretion.
In Brach v. City of Wausau, 0617 F. Supp. 2d 796 (W.D. Wis.2009), a court dismissed a case against officers for excessive force and forcing the plaintiffs into public wearing only his underwear. The court still found it was privilege for purposes of an 1983 action.
Faced with overwhelming criticism from lawyers and non-lawyers alike, Riniker went to Judge Bill Dyke in Iowa County and demanded a gag order. Dyke gave it to her but the order does not silence the growing number of people denouncing the case as an abusive of power. Ironically, I just spoke with David Bois as part of the ABA conference about the growing misuse of gag orders in courts around the country in high-profile cases.
Perhaps there was something that made Riniker feel that the boy was culpable in this incident. However, to charge a toddler with felony sexual assault defies reason. The use of a felony charge to force a child into supervision is an abuse of the criminal code in my view.
Here is the complaint: 261455600-18135628
Source: Journal Sentinel
I agree, Theo, however, as I understand it, the matter was brought to the bar association who have not disbarred her.
She was removed from the suit by a court who ruled that, although bad judgment, within prosecutorial discretion.
The only information that any court has had so far was that obtained when the DA ran a probable-cause hearing, demanding that the boy be present.
The boy’s defense has not been heard. Although he’s been to court he has not had his day in court. The felony charge was dismissed, there was a gag decree. The parents are now free to speak. Many folks believe the original accusation, though.
The boy’s PTSD is getting better. The T in PTSD was predicted by a forensic psychologist (who had been an expert witness for the DA before) who said, in a memo to the DA, that further prosecution would be positively harmful to the boy. It is her proceeding with this matter knowing she was doing psychological harm that appears unethical.
The woman should be disbarred.
The civil case was thrown out. “Prosecutorial immunity.”
The bar association is aware of the situation and had done nothing.
Riniker was reelected.
The suit has been heard. The DA has immunity, period.
The judges have ruled that the others were acting in their official government capacity and, too, have immunity.
An appeal is being prepared at the Federal level.
The parents are disgusted with the legal system. Apparently, a 6-yr-old has no rights at all.
“She also does seem obsessed with child molestation. Maybe she’s obsessive by nature, maybe she’s damaged goods.”
Hmm. I wonder what this really means. How do goods get damaged?
OS, I know a young man who was subjected to an eight-minute interview that was pure drek, then he was declared to be “lying,” then he was handed over to an abuser, then three million dollars were spent, and now he is a disabled adult. He accosted Janet Reno once (when he was done with his unfortunate childhood) because he saw her going into the library in Miami. (She was responsible for the administration of the eight-minute psycho-interview, and for much of what followed it, not including the criminal assault charges filed against the boy’s father when the boy was 17, objected to his father’s behavior, and got CHOKED nearly to death.) He said to her, “You ruined my life.” She looked at him, correctly identified him by name, and then responded, “It was not my fault.” NOT “It didn’t happen” — just “it was not my fault.”
Miskeyed….”penis”
I suspect Riniker hates everything with a penus and doesn’t believe in fabricated sexual abuse claims. She appears to be a psychopath.
it’s woman like that who give the term “district attorney” a bad name
Apparently the idea that children are committing crimes when they become involved in sex play is not confined to this one bartender:
http://www.solresearch.org/~SOLR/rprt/bkgrd/JSOcases.asp
Here’s a smart mom:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/12/02/20111202st-grader-face-sexual-harassment-complaint.html
1st-grader faces sexual harassment complaint
BOSTON — The mother of a Boston elementary school first-grader being investigated for possible sexual harassment for punching another boy in the groin says her son acted in self-defense.
Tasha Lynch said Thursday the other boy had choked her son on a school bus and stolen his gloves late last month.
She tells The Boston Globe her 7-year-old son reacted in an attempt to protect himself.
A spokesman for Boston public schools confirmed an investigation but refused to discuss specifics of the incident or why it has been classified as a possible case of sexual harassment.
Lynch says because her son punched the other boy in the groin, school officials say they consider it sexual assault. She counters that the other boy should be charged with attempted murder for choking her son.
@Bob,
Thank you, I either missed it or it was added since.
How did you determine that? I don’t quite see it from what I see on her page. Though it seems unlikely that page could be the page of a ADA.
It seems like an unusual name, and both of them seem a bit obsessed with child molestation…
@anon it might well be the right personon FB and they’re covering by putting a false occupation. Surely her friends must be asking why she updated her status to add bar tender when they know she’s a DA. Must make for interesting conversation.
She also does seem obsessed with child molestation. Maybe she’s obsessive by nature, maybe she’s damaged goods.
anon, that Lisa whose Facebook page you found, is a bartender. Not the same person.
Prosecuting while Republican. I am pro-for-there-being-greater-and-more-easily-accessed-accoutability-for-such-prosecutors. One case like this and the career should be over.
Any one besides me notice how they are keeping the politicians name out of all of the stories ? So far I have not seen in any of them that I have read . If I somehow missed it then I apologize .
Before we burn Riniker to the stake, has anyone thought for a second how far fetch this is? First off all of the info is from the parents of the child, non from the actual case. Second, the aren’t suing to get there son off, they are suing for 12 million dollars. Also, why did a judge or jury agree with Riniker? Nothing adds up to me, so I will be rational and let this playout before drawing a conclusion.
I’ll bet that the D.A. and/or the girl’s mother thought that they could bully the boy’s parent’s into submission before this whole thing got national media attention. Oh well…
Also, the Mother’s claim that she saw the the boy insert his finger into the girls rectum, despite the claims to the contrary by both children does sound a bit suspicious. I think that the mother saw what she wanted to see or rather what she was conditioned to expect when observing anything that could be construed as sexual in nature. It reminds me of when my elderly (Republican, social-conservative, Catholic) great-aunt complained to me that she saw Michael Jackson pull out his weener and masturbate at the end of the “Black and White” music video. She was convinced that this had happened, even though all he did was smash up a car and zip-up his fly.
Rape and child molestation. Both, because usually self reported, are often disbelieved: to the benefit of the perpetrators..
Yes, OS there are way too many times when it is a made up story for divorce proceedings, other nefarious reasons, but the damage it does to those for whom it was done, and particularly in cases where the person was disbelieved is almost indescribable. People like this Rinker woman, make it worse because what sounds on the face of it as innocent normal childhood play (and research) has scarred this boy and I would guess the girl too if only because she is now involved in this web of ridiculousness.
(Afterthought, the damage also to the children whose parents force them to lie in a court or to social workers, etc to bolster the claims of those who want them to lie.)
Malisha, the checkoff list I use is pretty complex. I have not published anything in the literature, but my work is all over case law files. This is stuff I have developed over forty years of practice.
There is some excellent information in Dr. Kathryn Kuhnle’s book “Assessing Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse.” Interviewing children is an art unto itself, and it is really easy to totally screw up a case with less than five minutes of bad interview technique. Dr. Anne Graffam Walker has an excellent book on interviewing chilldren.
Otteray, where is your checklist, is it published? Are you talking about a video of somebody molesting a child???? Or a video of people deciding on how to set somebody up as a child molester? Not the kind of video like the one the daughter made of the judge beating her with a strap —
I would love your take on the allegations that were made against Valerie Carlton, but they were already dropped and there was no actual record made of the evidence — the “evidence” — itself. The last thing the “molested child” said on the video of her interview by the wacko social worker was: “I just want to see my mommy more.”
I heard of a case about two or three years ago where a 16-year-old boy was jailed for something like five years for having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend, who thereafter MARRIED HIM (she was not pregnant!) — and yet the judge would neither reduce his sentence or let him serve it on probation or parole. I can’t remember which antedeluvian state that took place in. I thought, at the time, that it was the most psychotic case I had ever seen but I think this one outdoes it.