Custodial dad accused of abandoning 11-year-old son to fight charge (Lakeville, Minnesota)

Another example of the double standard. If a custodial Mom had abandoned her 11-year-old son when things got tough, and headed off to California, she'd be roundly denounced by the public and the media as a selfish bitch. And if it were made known that years before, she had stripped the father of all custody/visitation rights, then told the kid that his father was dead, all the FRs and their buddies would be screaming Parental Alienation Syndrom (PAS) in every forum they could find.

Do you hear any PAS drones posting on this case? Nope. None. Just silence. We're just supposed to feel sorry for poor STEVEN ALEXANDER CROSS and how financially stressed he was. As if nobody else in this country had experienced financial stress over the past few years. Utter crap.

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_19675451

Lakeville dad accused of abandoning son will fight charge
By Maricella Miranda
Updated: 01/05/2012 12:04:21 AM CST

A Lakeville father accused of abandoning his 11-year-old son plans to fight the charge at a trial.

Steven Alexander Cross, 60, appeared Wednesday in Dakota County District Court on a gross misdemeanor charge of child neglect in connection with leaving his son, Sebastian, on July 18 in their home and driving to California. Authorities arrested Cross in California and extradited him to Minnesota.

The case against Cross is scheduled for a jury trial Jan. 23.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail.

Cross said in November that, as an unemployed architect buried in bills and a mortgage payment, he had survived for two years on his savings, his retirement fund and unemployment checks. The family also was losing their home in a foreclosure.

When he had just $1,000 left, Cross decided to leave and wrote letters to his son and their neighbors asking them to care for the boy. Cross said he was too emotional to tell his son he was leaving.

The boy initially lived with the neighbors, John and Joanne Pahl, but later moved into his maternal great-aunt's home through foster care, officials said. Sebastian has been living there since and was recently reunited with his mother, Katik Porter, whom the boy was told was dead.

Porter, 38, lost visitation rights in 2002, leaving Cross with full custody of their child. In the letter Cross left for his son, he told the boy his mother was alive, contrary to what he had previously told him.


Last month, Cross attended a child-protection review hearing, where he asked to be reunited with his son. Cross' attorney, John Price, said that Cross has met the court-ordered requirements to see the boy, including undergoing a psychological evaluation, but Dakota County Social Services has yet to approve the meeting.

The boy's doctor said there could be a "major risk" in rushing the visits with Cross, said Dakota County District Judge Richard Spicer. Social services ultimately will decide when Cross should see his son again.

Spicer set another child-protection review hearing for Feb. 22.

Maricella Miranda can be reached at 651-228-5421.