Judge: 9-year-old stowaway not safe in parents' care

A 9-year-old boy who stowed away on a flight to Las Vegas should continue living away from his home while he and his family receive counseling, a Hennepin County Juvenile Court judge decided Wednesday.

The judge also ordered the county to do an evaluation to see if the boy can be placed with any relatives. He said the boy is not safe left in his parents' care. In the meantime, the parents will be allowed nearly unrestricted contact with their son.

The boy was not in court, but his parents were. They didn't speak in the courtroom. Instead, attorneys representing each parent asked Judge Joseph Klein to close the hearing and future proceedings to the public due to the heightened media attention the boy's case has received.

Attorney Robert Paule said an unnamed media organization had offered to pay the boy's mother for an exclusive story. "I think we can all agree, none of this is in the best interests of the child," Paule said.

Klein kept the proceedings open but ordered parties not to leak information to the public.

"There has been a clamor of media attention," Klein about the case, adding he was troubled by case details leaked already. Klein, though, said he couldn't "unring that bell."

According to a petition filed last week, the boy had a recent history of leaving home overnight without permission. County officials say the boy's mother told them her son was once gone for two to three days during July.

In August, the boy left home to go to the library at 3 p.m. and didn't come home, according to the record. His mother called police at 1:30 p.m. the next day, but found him at a nearby park.

In September, the boy was taken by police to St. Joseph's Home for Children after he was playing unsupervised at a swimming pool as it closed. The boy was at the Midtown YWCA on Sept. 18 as the facility was closing, the petition said. The boy refused to tell officers who he was, so they took him to the home.

A few days before he boarded a plane to Vegas, the boy allegedly stole a large delivery truck and smashed it into a police car and an SUV.