How Could You? Hall of Shame-Michael Griffin

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Baltimore, Maryland, “a Baltimore man has just been sentenced to 125 years in prison after the court determined that for five years, he sexually abused his girlfriend’s adopted daughter.

Michael Griffin was sentenced Thursday following a five-count conviction of sexual abuse of a minor in September. Griffin was previously convicted in 2002 and 2009 of committing second-degree rape, and one of those incidents involved a preteen victim.

According to the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, Griffin was considered a father figure to the victim and her two sisters and stayed at their home. Out of fear of being sent back to foster care and being orphaned again, the victim kept silent.

However, when the victim was 14 years old she became pregnant and the defendant took her for an abortion, paid for it and signed papers with a fake address. Then, at age 16, the victim became pregnant again. Griffin did the same thing, paying for the abortion, prosecutors say.

Once the victim turned 18 years old, she recounted to her family the years and years of sexual abuse she’d experienced.

“People are in disbelief when I tell them that a serial rapist can stand trial for rape without ever having to disclose his or her status as a registered sex offender during the proceedings,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said. “It flies in the face of all logic that the State of Maryland would allow this to regularly take place in our courtrooms—especially when it causes such acute harm to survivors of rape and molestation. One hundred and twenty-five years is the maximum sentence for this predator, I am grateful he will never have an opportunity to violate anyone again.”

The State’s Attorney’s Office further explains that for three years, Marilyn Mosby has been lobbying in Annapolis to change a Maryland law which “blocks a pattern of predatory behavior of convicted rapists and molesters from being heard in court when they are on trial for sexually assaulting a new victim. Federal Rules of Evidence allow prosecutors to introduce this evidence in federal cases, and several neighboring states have mirrored their laws after the federal rules in an effort to better protect sexual assault victims.”

Fearful of being sent back to foster care, a victim of sexual abuse kept silent for years [FOX Baltimore 11/17/17 by Zoe Zellers]

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