Teen girl allegedly stabbed brother in plot to kill family

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A 15-year-old girl accused of stabbing her younger brother as part of a plot to kill her family so that she could run off with a 23-year-old man appeared in a suburban Detroit courtroom Thursday, where a judge set her bond at $1 million.

The girl, who is charged as an adult with assault with intent to murder and conspiracy to commit murder in last Friday’s attack, wore a red jail jumpsuit at the hearing, which her parents attended.

Michael Rivera, the man she allegedly wanted to run away with, faces the same charges as well as a felonious assault charge. He was ordered held on $1 million bond Sunday.

The girl’s parents described Rivera as her boyfriend and said the two were in a sexual relationship. The Associated Press isn’t naming the girl or her family members because prosecutors said they may file sex charges against Rivera, since the girl is a minor.

Prosecutors say the girl stabbed her brother in the throat and tried to stab her younger sister. The boy was treated at a hospital. Prosecutors contend that during the attack, Rivera was outside of the girl’s Plymouth Township house sending text messages instructing her.

“He was using her to do his dirty work. She was under this man’s spell,” the girl’s mother told reporters after the hearing.

The couple said they adopted the girl and her two younger siblings from Poland when she was 4½ years old. They said she had been receiving treatment for depression.

“They came from a very, very, very bad background,” defense attorney Leslie Posner told reporters. “They were locked in closets, beaten” by their biological parents in Poland.

It was not known if Rivera has a lawyer.

Preliminary hearings are scheduled Oct. 31 for the girl and Rivera.