CHICAGO (Scripps News Milwaukee) — Morgan Geyser appeared in a Chicago court on Tuesday and agreed not to fight her return to Wisconsin after police found her sleeping outside a gas station in Posen, Illinois.
“Please just let me go,” Geyser pleaded to the police Sunday night when they discovered her outside the gas station.
Police released this photo of Morgan Geyser after she allegedly cut off her ankle monitor. (Madison Police Dept.)
During Tuesday’s court hearing, the 23-year-old appeared quiet and cooperative, telling the judge she would agree to be extradited to Waukesha County. No cameras were allowed in the courtroom. Geyser was assigned a public defender; her Wisconsin attorney, Tom Cotton, says he is not licensed in Illinois.
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The Waukesha County District Attorney says that since Geyser was sentenced to a mental health facility for stabbing her classmate, she has been in Department of Health Services custody. The state will now decide whether to revoke her conditional release.
Cotton has represented Geyser since she was about 12 years old in the shocking case that attracted national and international attention because of its connection to the fictional Slender Man character. Cotton learned from a friend over the weekend that Geyser had gone missing from her Madison group home.
“I wasn’t concerned that she would be violent,” Cotton said. “My fear was sort of two-fold – one, who is she with? What negative influence might have encouraged her to do this?”
Cotton says he has no regrets about advocating for Geyser’s release in September to a community group home after years at a state-run mental health institution.
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“I think that Morgan, if you look at the maturity that she exhibits at 18, 19, 20, her understanding of mental health, her cooperativeness with treatment, her insight into her conditions, her ability to be her own advocate with the treatment providers, I mean, it’s a 10 out of 10,” Cotton said.
However, Waukesha County prosecutors and the Department of Health Services raised serious concerns that Geyser was not ready for release, despite unanimous support from the doctors monitoring her.
“I think the doctors were all right at that time and continue to be right now,” Cotton said.
When asked about critics who might say “I told you so,” Cotton responded that people with mental health struggles will have ups and downs, good days and bad days, and will make bad decisions.
While we don’t know all the details about the man whom police say was with Geyser when found in Illinois, Cotton previously expressed concern about Geyser’s situation — not with her behavior, but with people fascinated by her case.
“The risk factor I saw was that she could get taken advantage of by an older man, either because she wanted the companionship or because they want to form a relationship with her or whatever,” Cotton said.
Cotton describes his relationship with Geyser as one that still maintains attorney-client boundaries while caring for her on a personal level.
“It’s still an attorney-client relationship, and it’s, I would say, never changed, said Cotton. You could describe it almost as I see her the same way I see my children, in a way that she’s somebody that I care about on a personal level, I want the best for her. I’ve watched her grow up before my eyes.”
At the time of the interview, Cotton had not yet spoken with Geyser about the past 48 hours, but planned to do so once she returned to Waukesha County custody.
This story was reported by Charles Benson and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
This story was originally published by Scripps News Milwaukee, an E.W. Scripps Company.
