New Evidence Puts Raar Conviction Into Even More Doubt
His victim pointed the finger at someone else shortly after the crime was alleged to have happened.
Psychological notes from more than three decades ago suggest there is even more evidence that Randall Raar was wrongfully convicted.
Raar was convicted starting in 2006 of several crimes including: possession of child pornography, felony possession of a firearm, and criminal sexual conduct.
Raar insists he is innocent of all the charges, when communicating with me from prison.
For now, I will focus on his conviction for criminal sexual contact. That’s because, even if guilty of all other charges, he would have been released long ago.
Raar sits in prison, likely to die there, because he was convicted of having sexual contact with a minor. The minor was five at the time of this purported incident.
The problem is that the incident supposedly occurred in the early 1990s, when the minor was five years old.
She did not testify to these events until she was twenty-one. Here is part of his appeal.
The 59-year-old defendant was convicted of sexually assaulting his then five-year-old neighbor in the summer of 1989 or 1990. In April 2006, the police received information that caused them to investigate defendant and canvass his former neighborhoods. At that time, they had contact with the victim, who alleged that defendant had sexually assaulted her when she was four or five years old by digitally penetrating her vagina. At trial, the 21-year-old victim testified that defendant and his roommate, Robert Higgins, lived next door to her family’s home. Defendant and Higgins encouraged the neighborhood children to come to their home and use their above-ground pool. The victim indicated that she and her neighbor, AB, were among the children who spent time at defendant’s house. The victim explained that defendant and Higgins, both dressed in swimsuits, would be in the pool and catch the children as they came down an attached slide. The victim stated that defendant would “catch [them] between [their] legs and put his hands—or try to put his hands up [them].”
This is dubious enough, however, the victim told a different story to her psychologist shortly after the incident occurred.
In therapist notes from 1991, the victim claimed her babysitter, Jimmy, was the one touching her inappropriately.
“She finally agreed to talk about one thing ‘Jimmy’ did when ‘he licked me.’ She looked disgusted as she said it and her face turned red.” The notes state.
Here are more notes.
Once again, the girl identifies Jimmy who, “penetrated her during sitting.”
Randall is not mentioned in these notes, nor is there anything about his pool.
This is the latest in a series of troubling revelations surrounding Raar’s case. Raar previously told me that the investigation into him started shortly after he investigated the Michigan government. He was working for a newspaper in 2006. Here’s what he previously told me.
I started to notice what was being published by both newspapers and other media outlests about the MDOC. One letter to a MDOC inmate led to 1000 over the years about what was happening in their facilities. I joined several prison advocacy groups, published two newsletters, lobbying in the state capitol in Lansing. My goal: why were there 14,000 past their minimum sentences?
During late January 2006, I wrote my state representative, Ed Clemente (14th District) about my planned book on the MDOC, along with some very sensitive data I obtained on the 11,500 parole and probation absconders running loose in Michigan, I believed terrorizing home and business owners.
He replied with a letter dated February 15, 2006, indicating he sent my harsh letter about the MDOC to the MDOC, which I believe ended up in the hands of the Michigan Attorney General, the lawyer for the MDOC.
During 2003, one of my sources wrote me telling me what I could FOIA to obtain information on the murder of four Oakland County children (1976-1977). Soon, I obtained a file fro the Detroit Police FOIA bureau. It was a graphic depiction of a child murdered. I turned it over to the lead/renowned Detroit News reporter, Norm Sinclair, telling him more would be forthcoming.
A second FOIA was sent in 2005. It was not until April 2006 that the FOIA Department called me asing me if I still wanted the request. I said yes. I would get a letter with a fee soon. It would never arrive.
On May 4 (and again on May 11), my home was raided by the Michigan State Police.
Raar has also previously been smeared by Michigan media. Raar was speaking with the Detroit News. Rather than running a story on his potential conviction, Raar was instead accused by the newspaper of possibly being a notorious serial killer.
A new tip in the Oakland County child killer case has police investigating.
Michigan State Police raided a Lincoln Park home last week after receiving a tip from a federal inmate.
A task force is working to bring evidence against the owner of the home, Randall Raar, 59, who they said may be linked to the Oakland County child killer case.
Inside the home, police found letters written to serial killers, child pornography, 8 mm film dating back to the 1970s, computer files and a sex slave dungeon equipped with shackles and a jail-like door that locked from the outside, Local 4 reported.
Raar is considered a link in the case, and a task force is currently collecting evidence to eliminate him as a suspect in the slaying of four area children.
Raar was never charged or convicted in that case.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office prosecuted Raar. I reached out to their media relations department but have not received a response back.
Post-Script:
This is the first of at least four articles on wrongful convictions. Find the fundraiser for this project to support more work like this.