Wisconsin Girls Will Face Prosecution in Slender Man Case

(  Waukesha, WI - Wheeler News) -  A judge ruled Thursday that two Waukesha girls are mentally competent to stand trial for stabbing a classmate in an apparent allegiance to Slender Man.

That means both criminal cases will resume with preliminary hearings for 13-year-old Anissa Weier and 12-year-old Morgan Geyser.  They have a joint proceeding scheduled for February 18th and 19th, in which the court will decide if there's enough evidence to put them on trial.  After that, defense attorneys will try to get both moved from adult court to juvenile court, where they could face much shorter confinement if convicted -- with a greater prospect of getting treatment.

Both girls face adult charges of attempted homicide, after 12 year old Peyton Leutner was stabbed 19 times in late May while at a sleepover.  She has recovered.

Lawyers for both girls contended that their clients were mentally incompetent to stand trial.  However, Circuit Judge Michael Bohren said that Weier is highly intelligent by all accounts.  Geyser was ruled mentally incompetent in August, after testimony indicated that she claimed to see and hear Slender Man, unicorns, and the villain in the Harry Potter stories.  Last month, a state psychiatrist said he found that Geyser's mental state had improved.