The trial for a Lakeville, Minnesota, man accused of child abandoning his 11-year-old son to look for work in California began on Jan. 24, with attorneys for both sides giving their opening arguments to a jury at the Dakota County courthouse. A defense attorney for the father, who has been fighting for visitation time with his son, said that the man did not put his son in danger when he left him home alone on July 18, 2011.

The central facts of the case, which we have covered several times in this blog, are not in dispute. The defendant had been a single father to the boy for 10 years when he began experiencing financial problems. While his son slept the evening of July 17, he wrote him a letter explaining that he could not find work as an architect and that their house was facing foreclosure. He told his son to take a second letter over to a neighboring family's house. In tears, the boy rode his bike to the house and found the woman who lived there.

The second letter asked the woman and her husband, whom the defense attorney described as "family" to the defendant and his son, to take care of the son until Aug. 31. The defendant meant to track down some distant relatives in California for financial help and return by then, his attorney said.

The woman called Lakeville police, who began to search for the father. Meanwhile, the boy lived with the neighbor family for several weeks before his maternal great-aunt, a licensed foster care provider, took over custody. The judge presiding over the related child custody case recently described the boy as angry at his father and uninterested in visitation with him, despite the father's having completed all the requirements the court set down to be granted visitation. The boy's mother, whom the boy was once told had died, has also become involved in the custody battle and has visited with him.

The man was eventually found in California and returned to Minnesota to face criminal charges.

Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Lakeville dad who abandoned son was 'at end of his rope," attorney tells jury," Pat Pheifer, Jan. 24, 2012