Dad Accused of Abandoning Son Released on Bond

A Lakeville father accused of abandoning his 11-year-old son in July, leaving a note telling him to take his PlayStation and go live with a neighbor, was released from the Dakota County Jail this week.

Steven Alexander Cross, 60, was released on $6,000 bond. , Cross was charged in August with child neglect, a gross misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine. 

After a nationwide search, police in San Luis Obispo County, CA, found Cross on Aug. 30, living in his car and working at a deli.He was extradited to Minnesota and in Hastings since Sept. 9.  

Cross posted $450 of the bond; the rest was covered by a bondsman, according to Hillary DeVary, a Lakeville private investigator who has been working independently on Cross’s case and who accompanied him on his way out of jail on Thursday.

DeVary said earlier this month that Cross——had agreed to accept help from her company, Financial Integrity Investigations, though he has told DeVary that he has no interest in trying to reclaim his foreclosed home.  

Arrangements are under way so that Cross can have supervised visits with his son, who Patch has declined to name, and is living with an aunt on his mother’s side. His mother, Katik Kristina Porter, may also be allowed to visit the child through arrangements with Dakota County social services, as will John and Joanne Pahl, the neighbors to whose home the tearful child rode his bicycle on the morning of July 18.

Cross, when their son was very young, had told the boy that she was dead. In the note he left before fleeing Minnesota, Cross admitted that she was alive. 

An omnibus hearing in Cross’s case is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.