Minnesota man sentenced for leaving 5-year-old son in woods

ST. PETER, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota man has been sentenced to up to a month in jail for leaving his 5-year-old son alone in the woods as punishment.

Thirty-two-year-old Gregory Allan Wilson of St. Peter was sentenced for gross misdemeanor child neglect Tuesday. Wilson pleaded guilty in May, and additional charges of domestic assault and malicious punishment of a child were dismissed.

Wilson’s girlfriend, 43-year-old Lynda Ruth Michel, pleaded guilty Tuesday to gross misdemeanor child neglect. She will be sentenced in October.

Authorities say Wilson and Michel abandoned the boy in a wooded area south of St. Peter last summer as punishment for wetting himself.

When the couple returned, the boy was gone. A passer-by found the boy walking along a highway.

The Mankato Free Press reports the boy remains in foster care.

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Information from: The Free Press, http://www.mankatofreepress.com