Shocked, sickened: Rape-abortion suspect should be in prison, says his father

By Beth Brelje
Pocono Record Writer

June 09, 2010 As state police drove to Michael Lisk's Polk Township home Sunday, he walked his father outside and told him what he had done. And then, according to the senior Lisk, his son went into the woods to dig up the body of a baby.

It was the first time that Michael Lisk, 52, heard that his adult son had been having sex with a 13-year-old. Before he mentally processed the information, police arrived, and nothing has been the same since.

Accused of repeatedly raping a child and burying their baby after the girl performed a home abortion on herself, the younger Michael Lisk, 30, thought he was helping police by unearthing the child, according to his father.

"The whole thing sickens me," said the older Lisk.

His son learned police were on the way to his home after receiving a phone call from the 13-year-old girl and her mother. They had just been interviewed by police at Lehigh Valley Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The girl told authorities she used a lead pencil to perform a home abortion.

"Above everything else, everyone ought to have concern for this child right now," said the distraught older Lisk.

The girl became violently ill after the procedure last Wednesday. Three days later, the baby was born in the toilet of the girl's home. The girl told police the baby was stillborn. Autopsy results, which may reveal the age, gender and condition of the baby, are pending.

On the younger Lisk's advice, she placed the baby in a plastic grocery bag and threw it behind a tree, according to court papers. Lisk retrieved the baby from the yard, walked toward his house and buried the baby in the woods.

The older Lisk cannot get the scene out of his mind.

"How could any rational human being walk down the street with a baby in a grocery bag?" he asked. "Everybody is safer because he is in prison. This is where I feel he belongs."

His son earned a little money selling furniture fashioned out of old wooden pallets. He couldn't make the rent, so he asked to move back in with his father, less than a mile from the girl's home.

Lisk wanted his son to straighten out and grow up.

"We're talking about a 30-year-old man with no sense of responsibility. You can try to help him out, but you can't help someone who does not want to listen," said Lisk's father.

The younger Lisk has a problem with alcohol, according to his father. He has been charged twice with driving under the influence at a high rate of speed and driving with a suspended license. Failure to appear at several court dates had complicated his legal problems.

The senior Lisk gave his son a roof over his head and a meal, but that was it. No money, no rides. If he wanted to go somewhere, he had to walk. Often he walked to the home of friends who lived near the girl.

His father assumed Lisk was friends with the girl's mother. He doesn't understand why a mother would allow a 13-year-old to spend time alone with a 30-year-old man, but is quick to add that all the blame belongs to his son.

"We raised him differently. He chose the path he chose. I cannot be responsible for what my 30-year-old adult son does," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that he has psychological issues."

From: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100609/NEWS/6090329