Mother & Sick Son Stop Running From Law - Face Custody Hearing

The Star Tribune - Minneapolic/St.Paul May 26, 2009

Daniel Hauser faces custody hearing today

by JENNA ROSS, JACKIE CROSBY, ANTHONY LONETREE and CURT BROWN | Star Tribune staff writers

NEW ULM, MINN. -- Colleen and Daniel Hauser, who ended a dramatic weeklong manhunt Monday, were back at home this morning and facing a court hearing this afternoon to clarify Daniel's custody and the next steps in his medical care for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The Hausers returned home to Minnesota on a predawn charter flight after turning themselves in to authorities with the assistance of a lawyer in Southern California. Early reports said that Daniel, 13, was turned over to the custody of Brown County child protection workers.

But he was seen by reporters late this morning riding a four-wheeler with his mother on the family’s farm in rural Sleepy Eye, heading across the road to their dairy farm.

Calvin Johnson, an attorney for the teen's parents, said Daniel was in the company of Brown County child protection workers Monday and was having his cancer evaluated at a Twin Cities hospital. Daniel's parents were with him, Johnson said, and the boy was expected to return to the family home Monday night.

A court hearing is expected to begin at 2:15 p.m. today in New Ulm to clarify Daniel's custody arrangement and determine the next steps in his medical care. Brown County Attorney James Olson said he doesn't expect to charge Colleen Hauser and said arrest warrants have been quashed because she voluntarily returned. The county attorney said the judge will want to know where the parents stand on chemotherapy treatment, which could influence his own course of legal action.

Hodgkin's lymphoma was diagnosed in Daniel in January, and a Brown County judge ordered him into medical treatment earlier this month after his parents ceased his chemotherapy, citing religious and other objections. Doctors have testified that the boy has a 90 to 95 percent chance of surviving if he receives a recommended course of chemotherapy but only a 5 percent chance if he does not.

In an extraordinary twist to the story, Colleen and Daniel's return was videotaped by a California film company, Asgaard Media, which arranged their charter flight back to Minnesota and made the video of their account available to authorities.

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