Raar: "I've been labeled a sexual predator to discredit my investigations."
In his latest communication from prison, he reveals that he was also investigating an unsolved murder from the 1980s before he was investigated.
Randall Raar continues to insist he is an innocent man targeted by law enforcement.
This time he revealed that not only was he investigating a string of unsolved murders in the 1970s, but another murder in the 1980s.
"This is an expose', episode, addendum, synopsis, anecdote, rendition, excerpts of how SIXTEEN years has been taken away from me and my wife for my interest to find out who murdered the children, and in the abstract, the murder of Lincoln Park resident, DONNA M. GOMEZ (1985); both murders I believed committed by law enforcement or police impostor.”
The Donna Gomez murder remains unsolved and there is a website dedicated to finding the real killer.
Meanwhile, at least four murders were committed in Oakland County, Michigan, in 1976-1977 which also remain unsolved.
Donna murdered in Lincoln Park, 1985.
Oakland 1976-1977. I have a list of how they died. Girls differently then boys.
I believe a cop asked them if they wanted a ride home from 7-11. They said no. Mommie said don't go with strangers. Then he showed them a police badge.
The theory that law enforcement or an imposter may have committed these murders is Raar’s alone, however, there is troubling evidence which surrounds this case, suggesting that Raar was ruffling the wrong feathers.
Raar was convicted of child molestation largely on the strength of testimony from a twenty-one-year-old who was testifying about events which occurred when she was five or six. Here is part of an 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].”
At the time the crimes were alleged, the victim, then six, had told her psychologist that another person- Jimmy-had touched her inappropriately. Randall was not mentioned in any of the notes.
Randall tells me that his own investigation into these murders was heating up when he was suddenly targeted.
Raar's father was a newspaper publisher & police commissioner. When he died in 1978 left one of the police commission meetings where a Lincoln Park police officer was accused of molesting a female child and resigned rather than be prosecuted. This file found in 1981. Then in 1996 when his mother died, Raar's fraternity brother, a Lincoln Park police officer visited and told him the same thing recently happened, same scenario.
Then in 2003, Raar, as a prison reform advocate, got a tip from of one his 1000 sources in the MDOC, telling him what to FOIA from the Detroit Police FOIA coordinator, Robyn J. Brooks. Once he obtained this file, he discovered it to be of a dead female child along a lake. He turned it over to Norm Sinclair of the Detroit News where Raar worked upstairs in production. He told Norm a second FOIA would come, and on April 15, 2006 he received a call from Brooks asking if he wanted the FOIA. Raar said yes.
He, nor Norm would get the FOIA. Raar's home raided.
He previously laid out the timeline.
I received a file from 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.
The investigation was purported to be about Raar allegedly possessing child pornography, but it turned quickly into an investigation of child rape from more than fifteen years ago.
Below is part of an appeal which lays out the chain of events.
Though normally such an investigation would be done on the local level, Raar was investigated by the Michigan State Police and prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
I’ve reached out to both for guidance but did not receive a response.
“I HAVE BEEN LABELED A SEXUAL PREDATOR TO DISCREDIT MY INVESTIGATIONS,” Raar said further.
Meanwhile, Raar told me he was then the victim of a smear campaign, with law enforcement sources reaching out to the media and suggesting he was the serial killer responsible for the 1976-1977 murders.
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.
I previously reached out this news station for comment but also received no response.
Those suspicions led nowhere; Raar was never arrested or convicted of these crimes, but he told me it had another effect.
Most of the people still supporting him quickly distanced themselves after these accusations came out.
He tells me that the targeting continues while in prison, “All during my time in jail I was targeted by inmates because my case was high profile, and the guards were spreading my cases around -- I was tied to the Oakland County murders.”
Raar tells me his case is part of a larger problem- a system built on convictions and plea bargains.
It should be noted that Michigan courtrooms have a 95-98% conviction rate. Russia has a 99% conviction rate. Why does Michigan get these plea bargains? Ask Raar.
Why was Raar forced into two trials in 2007? Answer: To get the full minimum & maximum sentence in both cases. Media outlets won't intervene because no appeals court will grant him an Evidentiary hearing.
How did all of this happen in 2006-7? Because Judges are former Prosecutors, and favor prosecutions "circumstantial evidence" theories. Every effort is achieved to avoid dismissals or face lawsuits. Complicity is alive and well in Michigan courtrooms. Will anyone dare dig deep into Michigan politics and acts of collusion, a crime by those in criminal cases?
Post-Script:
This is the third of at least four articles on wrongful convictions. Find the first and second articles. Find the fundraiser for this project to support more work like this.