Formerly custodial dad gets probation for abandoning 11-year-old son and leaving the state (Hastings, Minnesota)

Previous articles on this case and shown that dad STEVEN CROSS stripped the mother of custody for the most specious of reasons, then told the son that Mommy was dead. Obviously he shut off all contact for years. (When moms say things like this, the "experts" call it parental alienation syndrome. When Daddy does it, the system lets out a collective yawn.)Then this wonderful daddy finally abandons the kid and hightails it to California. Typical of the type of father who goes for custody. He's not interested in the kid. He just wants control, and wants to hurt the mother. FINALLY, mom has regained custody, but the courts are still insisting that Daddy be kept "involved"--though he didn't extend the same courtesy to Mom all the years HE had custody, did he? Notice that the son is truly traumatized by what the father did to him. Other articles have said he's not sure if he really wants to be reunited with Daddy Dearest, but the father-friendly courts are going to force him regardless.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/16/4494544/lakeville-father-who-abandoned.html

Lakeville father who abandoned son sentenced
The Associated Press
Last modified: 2012-05-16T16:54:05Z
Published: Wednesday, May. 16, 2012 - 9:53 am

HASTINGS, Minn. -- A Lakeville father found guilty of child neglect for abandoning his son and leaving the state has been sentenced to two years of probation.

A Dakota County judge also ordered 60-year-old Steven Cross to pay about $2,500 in restitution for his extradition from California.

Cross left Minnesota last July when his house was lost in foreclosure. He left behind letters telling his 11-year-old son, Sebastian, to go to a neighbor's house and asking the family to become his son's guardian. Sebastian later moved in with a great-aunt.

An impact statement was read in court Wednesday in which Sebastian explained that he felt horrible when his dad left and thought his life was over.

The Star Tribune ( http://bit.ly/Je3EAp) says a judge ordered that Sebastian be placed with his mother. Therapists will recommend when Cross can visit his son.