Randall Raar joined me for a quick interview from the Richard A. Handlan Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan.
Raar has been imprisoned since 2006 and he will likely die in jail unless his case gets another look.
He was convicted of several crimes including possession of child pornography, but he remains in jail for a conviction of child sexual assault.
That remains a dubious conviction since the victim was five at the time the crimes occurred but did not testify- or even point the finger at- against Raar until she was twenty-one. 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].”
As I revealed last week, psychological notes taken at the time the crime allegedly occurred suggest that the victim was pointing the finger at someone else.
“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.
Randall told me that he never saw these notes until an appeal’s lawyer showed it to him after he was convicted.
As such, the victim was not challenged about them; he also said that the psychologist misrepresented their content at trial.
He said that Jimmy was charged shortly after the crimes occurred.
Raar believes that his incarceration is the direct result of his investigation into a gruesome unsolved serial killing which occurred in the 1970s.
“My home was raided for the pure purpose of gaining to my research of the Oakland County child murder cases: 1976-1977. All of this while I worked for the Detroit Free Press production company.” He told me.
This website has more detail on those still unsolved crimes.
I remember this vividly because I was the right age at the time (ten) and even though we lived in the next county, this was all over the news and parents were freaked out throughout SE Michigan. All the rules changed, and no children were outside alone, without an adult, ever. No more, "Go ride your bike but be back by summertime," no more, "Yes you can ride your horse to Laura's." (Laura lived over 5 miles away.) No more walking to the library after school and Mom would pick you up later. My bus stop was at the end of our private road, a quarter mile away and although all the families living on the road were on rather uneasy terms, there was always a parent waiting at the bus stop, turns were taken and there were headcounts done and that was just unheard of. (At least I didn't get pudding thrown on me anymore while walking to the bus stop.) Anyway, this put the whole area into a state of near hysteria and primal fear for children.
All four children, two girls and two boys, were snatched out of thin air and after a matter of time, turned up dead.
Raar was never charged or convicted for those murders.
“When they came to my door,” Raar said, “He said to me, ‘the Attorney General has a special interest in you.”
He said that law enforcement brought up the serial killings during the raid which was ostensibly for possession of child pornography.
Soon, police were leaking to the media that Raar was a suspect in the unsolved serial killing.
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.
In fact, Raar’s case was prosecuted by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and not by a local prosecutor. They released a long press release in 2007.
“Why does the Attorney General come after me; why not a local prosecutor?” Raar asked rhetorically in the interview.
The Michigan Attorney General at the time was Mike Cox; it is currently Dana Nessel.
I reached out previously to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for an explanation but have not received a response.
The press release claimed they found a dungeon in Raar’s home, “Police made the startling discovery of a secret room in the basement of Raar’s home as well as child pornography hidden behind a false wall of the home.”
Raar maintains that the child pornography amounts to nudist colony magazine and no child pornography was found in his computer. Court transcripts back up this assertion.
In the interview, he said he believes the case was made against him to cover up for the fact that there was never any probable cause to search his home to begin with.
“They had to find a way to cover up the 4th amendment violation,” Raar said, “They came in my home with no knowledge of what’s on my computer in my home.”
Post-Script:
This is the second of at least four articles on wrongful convictions. Find the first article here. Find the fundraiser for this project to support more work like this.
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