Man who raped 12-year-old girl given joint custody of her child

A man who allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl has been granted joint custody of her now 8-year-old son.

Christopher Mirasolo was sentenced to a year in jail for the 2008 assault, but served just over six months. According to The Detroit News, a judge has now given the 27-year-old  joint legal custody after DNA testing established the paternity of the child. The judge also gave him the victim's address and added Mirasolo's name to the birth certificate, all without the mum's consent. The victim is now 21 years old and her lawyer, Rebecca Kiessling, is seeking protection under the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act to stop his access. She said:

"This is insane. “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.”

She added that her client was told she was "not allowed to move 100 miles from where she had been living when the case was filed, without court consent". According to the attorney, Mirasolo forcibly raped and threatened to kill her client in September 2008. He was found guilty of  attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct and sentenced to one year in jail. But he only served six and a half months before he got early release to go care for his ill mother. Ms Kiessling said:

“She, her 13-year-old sister and a friend all slipped out of their house one night to meet a boy and the boy’s older friend, Mirasolo, showed up and asked if they wanted to go for a ride,” said Kiessling. “They thought they were going to McDonald’s or somewhere. “Instead, he tossed their cellphones away, drove to Detroit where he stole gas from a station and then drove back to Sanilac County, where he kept them captive for two days in a vacant house near a relative, finally releasing the older sister in a park. “He threatened to kill them if they told anyone what happened.”

Mirasolo committed a sex assault on a victim between the ages of 13 and 15 years old in March 2010, and served four years for the second offence, according to Ms Kiessling. His lawyer Barbara Yockey said it was unclear what her client's involvement with the child, if any, will be. She added:

“Chris was notified of the paternity matter and an order of filiation was issued last month by the court saying he had joint legal custody and reasonable visitation privileges. “He never initiated this. It was something routinely done by the prosecutor’s office when a party makes application for state assistance."

Featured image via Michigan Department of Corrections.