Convicted Rapist Given Joint Custody Of Victim's Child

A convicted sex offender has been awarded joint custody of the child he fathered after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl.

In September of 2008, Christopher Mirasolo of Brown City, Michigan allegedly held the victim, her sister, and another girl captive in a vacant house for two days. Mirasolo, who was 18 during the kidnapping, was arrested a month later after the victim discovered she was pregnant, according to WNEM, the CBS affiliate in Saginaw, Michigan.

The shocking decision was made by Sanilac County Circuit Court Judge Gregory S. Ross after a DNA test revealed Mirasolo, now 27, was the father of the 8-year-old boy.

“This is insane,” said the victim’s attorney Rebecca Kiessling, via The Detroit News. “Nothing has been right about this since it was originally investigated. He was never properly charged and should still be sitting behind bars somewhere, but the system is victimizing my client, who was a child herself when this all happened.”

The sex offender was reportedly facing 25 years to life for the rape, but the Sanilac County Prosecutor’s Office provided Mirasolo with a plea deal that reduced the sentence to only one year in prison. Mirasolo served only six months of his sentence before being released. Adding to the controversy, Mirasolo was convicted of another sex assault on a minor after his release and reportedly served four more years in prison for that crime.

The disturbing actions allegedly taken by Judge Ross are also drawing outrage. The Sanilac County judge reportedly gave the victim’s address to her attacker and ordered Mirasolo’s name be added to the boy’s birth certificate. The lawyer for the victim, who is now 21, claims that all of this was done without the victim’s consent or a court hearing.

Kiessling is currently seeking to protect her client and her son under the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 25.