More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Wisconsin woman who admitted to helping stab a classmate to please online horror character Slender Man will be freed Monday from a mental health institution under strict conditions, a judge ruled Friday.
Anissa Weier, 19, will be released after spending almost four years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh. A conditional release plan calls for her to live with her father, submit to around-the-clock GPS monitoring and receive psychiatric treatment, among other things. She won't be allowed to use the internet except at home, and the state Department of Corrections will monitor her online activity.
Weier and a friend, Morgan Geyser, both were committed to Winnebago after pleading guilty to attacking Payton Leutner when they were all 12 years old. Geyser stabbed Leutner multiple times as Weier urged her on. Leutner suffered 19 stab stab wounds - including one that narrowly missed her heart - and barely survived.
Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren said the conditions of Weier's release were fair and the plan “provides for the protection of the community” as well as for Leutner and for Weier herself.
Weier, dressed in a dark suit and smiling occasionally, said nothing during the 20-minute proceeding. The judge delayed her release until Monday after her attorney, Maura McMahon, said the mental health facility would be able to better process her release after the weekend.
“She looks forward to moving on into a productive life,” McMahon told the judge.
Leutner's family declined to speak during the hearing. Leutner declined to comment when reached by phone later Friday afternoon.
As part of Weier's release conditions, a case manager will monitor her medication for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and a personality disorder. Her cellphone won't be able to access the internet, and she won't be allowed to use social media at all. She also won't be allowed to consume alcohol or drugs, enter a bar, possess a weapon or have any contact with Leutner or her family.
Deputy District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz said he had no objections to the release conditions.
The attack happened in May 2014, after Weier and Geyser invited Leutner to a sleepover. The next day they lured Leutner into the woods at a Waukesha park. Weier and Geyser left Leutner for dead, but she managed to crawl out of the woods and a passing bicyclist found her.
Police found Weier and Geyser later that day walking on Interstate 94 in Waukesha. They told investigators said they attacked Leutner because they thought it would make them Slender Man's servants and prevent him from killing their families. After the stabbing they began walking to Slender Man's mansion, they said.
The Slender Man character grew out of internet stories. He's depicted as a spidery figure in a black suit with a blank white face. Sony Pictures released a movie about Slender Man stalking three girls in 2018. Weier's father, Bill, blasted the film as an attempt to capitalize on a tragedy.
Weier eventually pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. Borhen sentenced her to 25 years at Winnebago in December 2017.
In her petition for conditional release, she argued that she had exhausted all her treatment options at the facility and needed to rejoin society. She vowed she'd never let herself “become a weapon again.” Bohren ruled in July that Weier no longer posed a threat and ordered state officials to draw up a release plan.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Bohren sentenced her to 40 years in a mental health facility in February 2018. She has argued that her case should have been heard in juvenile court, but an appellate court ruled last year the case was properly heard in adult court.
Her trial attorney, Anthony Cotton, said Friday that Geyser has not filed a petition for release and declined further comment. Court records show that during her sentencing, Bohren ruled that conditional release would “pose a significant risk of bodily injury” to Geyser or others.
Associated Press writer Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.