place

Wisconsin v. Kizer

2018 in WisconsinChild sexual abuse in the United StatesIncidents of violence against girlsSex traffickingUse mdy dates from April 2023
Victims of underage prostitutionVigilantism against sex offenders

Wisconsin v. Kizer is a pending murder case in which the deceased's alleged sex trafficking of the defendant is being raised as an affirmative defense, for the first time in Wisconsin and possibly anywhere in the United States.The defendant, Chrystul Kizer, a Black girl, was arrested in 2018 at age 17 for the murder of Randall Phillip Volar III, a 34-year-old White man who had abused and trafficked Kizer and other underage Black girls in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kizer sought to raise an affirmative defense under a Wisconsin statute (Wis. Stat. s. 939.46) that shields trafficking victims from prosecution for crimes that are a direct result of the trafficking.The trial court ruled that the affirmative defense did not apply to violent crimes, but the ruling was overturned on appeal, allowing Kizer to present evidence of her trafficking at trial. Since the ruling was overturned, supporters have renewed calls for charges against Kizer to be dismissed.Kizer's case has received international attention, especially after the George Floyd protests triggered renewed focus on criminal justice reform. The case has been compared to similar cases involving claims of self-defense, such as George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, who were acquitted (the latter of which also took place in Kenosha), and Cyntoia Brown, another Black child trafficking victim, who spent 15 years in prison.Kizer was initially held on $1 million bail and spent almost two years in jail before her bail was lowered to $400,000, which community activists paid, securing her release in June 2020. She was re-arrested in February 2024 after her bail was revoked for having been charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct while out on bail. Kizer's trial is scheduled for June 10, 2024.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wisconsin v. Kizer (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Wisconsin v. Kizer
Wood Road, Kenosha

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Wisconsin v. KizerContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 42.582222222222 ° E -87.845555555556 °
placeShow on map

Address

Wood Road 5841
53140 Kenosha
Wisconsin, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Share experience

Nearby Places

Shooting of Jacob Blake

On August 23, 2020, Jacob S. Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was shot and seriously injured by police officer Rusten Sheskey in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Sheskey shot Blake in the back four times and the side three times after Blake opened the driver's door of an SUV belonging to the mother of his children, and attempted to reach inside. Sheskey said that he believed he was about to be stabbed, since Blake was holding a knife. Earlier during the encounter, Blake had been tasered by two officers, but the tasers failed to disable him and he continued towards the vehicle.Blake had a warrant for his arrest from July, based on charges of third-degree felony sexual assault and trespassing and disorderly conduct for domestic abuse in May. Both Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and the Kenosha Professional Police Association stated that the officers dispatched on August 23 were aware of the pending warrant for Blake before they arrived on scene; dispatch records confirm this.The police shooting was followed by unrest, which included rallies, marches, property damage, arson, and clashes with police. Two people were also fatally shot in a confrontation with an armed civilian, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse. Blake's name was invoked in protests in other cities as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, which resurged in the wake of several high-profile killings by police officers in 2020.In January 2021, Kenosha County prosecutors announced that the officers involved in the shooting would not be charged, and Sheskey returned to regular police duty in April 2021. Prosecutors also announced that Blake would not face any new charges, and they dropped previous sexual assault and trespassing charges against Blake in exchange for him pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct for domestic abuse, for which he was then sentenced to two years of probation.