Father accused of abandoning son speaks out

HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) — A single father from Minnesota accused of abandoning his 11-year-old son says he wants to be reunited with the boy and didn’t think he was doing anything illegal when he fled the state.

Steven Alexander Cross faces a charge of child neglect after leaving the boy alone in their Lakeville home last July and driving to California where he was later arrested. Cross says he was buried in bills and faced a foreclosure on his house when he decided to leave his son with neighbors. He tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press that he was too upset to tell his son in person that he was leaving. The 60-year-old father instead wrote a letter to his son and another to the neighbors. His son, Sebastian remains in child protective custody.