In September 2008, Christopher Mirasolo, 18 years old at the time, kidnapped three 12-13 year old girls for two days in a vacant house near his families property. He now has joint legal custody of a child conceived out of that rape.
The Detroit News has been following this story, stating that one of Mirasolo’s initial victims discovered she was pregnant the same month he was convicted of rape. Mirasolo served only six months of his one year sentence for that incident, and in 2010 was later convicted of another child rape and served only four years of the 15 year sentence. Her family was told he only served 6 months because “first-time sex offenders weren’t sent to prison because people come out worse after they go there” and he needed to care for his sick mother.
Now, he has been awarded joint custody of the baby boy the first victim has been raising since she was 13 years old — but how? Apparently, through some shady legal nonsense, he illegally got her address and claimed she consented to adding his name to the birth certificate. Now, because his name is on the birth certificate, he has been granted joint custody, and given the ability to be active in his child’s and his victim’s life. The victim and her attorney insist this all started after aid she recieved from the state was being investigated – ya know, a single mom can’t get health insurance AND food for her baby without some bureaucrat sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.
Michigan state law is clear that “if a child custody is contested, then custody and parenting time shall not be awarded to men who father through rape. However…[it] cannot be terminated unless child custody first in dispute” and this case clearly falls within Michigan’s definition of rape. Because he snuck his name on that birth certificate, he now has parental rights and visitation privileges — which is the grossest thing to ever happen. The only silver lining of this case seems to be that since Christopher Mirasolo was convicted of rape, it should be a pretty straight-forward legal argument that he cannot have custody of this child. The victim and her attorney are headed to court on October 25th to argue that point under the federal Rape Survivor Child Custody Act.
According to BBC, 20 states and the District of Columbia require a rape conviction before the termination of parental rights, and a 2016 CNN article explains that “seven states don’t have any laws preventing a rapist from claiming parental rights” — use their search function at the bottom of the article to see where you state stands on rapist’s parental rights.
Now, this victim must trudge into court and prove that the man who kidnapped and raped her when she was 12 years old should not be allowed to have a position in her life, nor the life of her child. Her attorney says it is unclear why Mirasolo has begun this process now, 8 years since the child was born, and has no idea how active Mirasolo plans to be in the child’s life.
Christopher Mirasolo is a convicted serial rapist. How have we sunken so low to even consider allowing him custody of a child?
If you, or someone you know, needs help:
Please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1.800.656.HOPE or
RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network) live chat.
Header Photo via Michigan Department of Corrections
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