Rescued Child to be Held as Evidence

Milwaukee, WI- According to the Milwaukee District Attorney’s office, an abducted child recently rescued from her captor must be held as evidence until trial.

Few in the Milwaukee area haven’t heard the saga of little Katie Ramirez, the six year old that disappeared from her Whitefish Bay home in February. Her family was overjoyed to hear of her recovery Friday. Unfortunately despite Katie’s safe recovery, the saga has not yet ended.

The investigation had initially focused on the parents of the missing girl, Matthew and Melinda Ramirez, when inconsistencies in the kidnapping story began to emerge. But all suspicions were dropped after a tip led to the rescue of Ms. Ramirez from her captor’s residence in nearby Franklin Heights, home of a laborer named Kevin LaRouge. Mr. LaRouge (33) had been hired by the family to perform odd jobs, but was dismissed after it was discovered he had a violent criminal record.

After a SWAT team found the girl tied to a bedpost, she was placed in protective custody at the Milwaukee Police station. Shortly afterward, her parents learned she would need to be kept as evidence until Mr. LaRouge’s trial.

Her outraged father decried the decision. “This is (expletive deleted) insane! What gives them the right to keep her?” he fumed to reporters.

According to prosecutors, Wisconsin law does. “To bolster the state’s case against the suspect, we are following every procedure by the book” said assistant D.A. Roger Juella. “I don’t want to let Mr. LaRouge escape justice because of a technicality.” That technicality refers to a little-known state statute dating to the 1890’s that allows for “perfons (sic) recovered from the hands of ne’er-do-wells be kept safe from harm as ward of the state and presented as an object of evidence until their tormentor(s) be remanded to a house of detention or be hereby found not to be of guilt.”

Protests from the family, the ACLU, and local residents are gaining in volume, but the Wisconsin Department of Justice insists that Ms. Ramirez is being “given the best of care and is quite comfortable”. Her family is permitted daily visits until trial begins, which the D.A.’s office insists will come as soon as possible, perhaps as early as this summer. In the meantime donations of toys, as well as letters of outrage, continue to pour into the office where Katie’s small living space is located.

In a rare statement from Katie herself, she appeared to have mixed feelings about her situation.“I miss my mommy and daddy,” she initially lamented. “But Miss Terry (her court-appointed caregiver) lets me watch Dora whenever I want, and I have lots of things to play with here. And today we get Taco's!”

LaRouge was denied bail at his arraignment Monday. He is being held in the Milwaukee County Jail awaiting trial, just 3 blocks from the protective services building where little Katie waits and does the same.