Man Who Ran Away with Teen Accepts Deal that Could Mean 20 Years in Prison

Robert L. Messer, 38, could spend 20 years in jail after he pleaded guilty three criminal sexual conduct charges and on charge of accosting a child for immoral purposes. (Plymouth Township Police photo)

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A Salem Township man who ran away with his teenaged girlfriend and had a child with her has agreed to a plea deal that could land him in prison for more than two decades.

Robert L. Messer, 38, agreed to the deal late last week after a mistrial was declared last spring after a hung jury failed to come to a verdict. In exchange for pleading guilty to one count of criminal sexual conduct, one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and one charge of accosting a child for immoral purposes, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to drop four additional charges, the Observer & Eccentric reports.

His latest trial was scheduled to have begun this week. The plea deal was reached Friday

Those charges included, three charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and one of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a person under age 13.

A spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the plea agreement calls for prison sentence of 20-40 years. As part of the agreement, Messer will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release and will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device for the rest of his life. He is also barred from having contact with the victim and her family.

Messer was arrested last fall after he and the then 15-year-old teen, who testified in April that she believed she had been in a relationship with Messer since sixth grade, ran away for two days.

A long-time family friend, he picked her up from her home in Plymouth Township and drove her to his home near Northville last Oct. 27. Officials say that Messer had sexual contact with the girl at locations in Wayne and Washtenaw County.

Police began searching for Messer and the teen after they both left letters expressing their love for one another. They were found two days later in a farm field in Washtenaw County, and both were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of superficial wounds. The two reportedly had entered into a suicide pact.

The teen victim, who has since given birth to a boy Messer fathered, is reportedly humiliated about and felt betrayed by the relationship, her mother testified during Messer’s pre-trial examination last fall, the Detroit Free Press reported. The teen began seeing a counselor and spent several days in a hospital psychiatric ward after she was found, her mother said.

“She thinks that everyone thinks less of her. … She’s ashamed of it, she’s humiliated by it,” her mother testified during Messer’s pre-trial examination last fall.

The victim and her family had met Messer through their mutual church about a decade ago, and he acted as a father figure to the victim.

“Of everyone that I knew, he was the one person I thought I could trust,” the teen’s mother said in her testimony. “I had no idea that they were romantically involved.”

Messer will be sentenced Aug. 22 before Wayne County Circuit Judge Qiana D. Lillard.