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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.
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.
Asgaard, whose principals are connected to the California alternative-health community, arranged Daniel's return through a California attorney named Jennifer Keller. The FBI and sheriff were kept posted on the arrangements. Keller said Colleen was worried about being arrested, so the private plane returned to New Ulm at 3 a.m. Teen 'was going to run away' In the video, Colleen Hauser said Daniel was going to run away from home last winter if forced to undergo more chemotherapy. He had one round of chemotherapy in February before his case mushroomed into a national story. "Danny was going to run away," Colleen Hauser said on the video. "Then what do I have? That just broke my heart." In an interview Monday night, Keller said Colleen Hauser told her that she believes chemotherapy is toxic and will ask a judge for permission to use alternative treatments. Colleen Hauser told Keller she would abide by whatever the court orders, including chemotherapy. "He appeared tired, but he was not in acute distress," said Keller, who met the Hausers on Sunday at her office in Irvine, Calif. Hoffmann would not comment on where Colleen and Daniel spent the past week, on whether Daniel received alternative cancer treatment and on who assisted the pair in their remarkable cross-country flight. Another California attorney, Susan Daya, had been seen with the Hausers in Minnesota last week and was listed in a nationwide crime alert issued by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Daya did not return phone calls late Monday. Olson said he expects all charges against Daniel's mother to be dropped, although a statement from Hoffmann's office indicated that charges could be brought against others connected to the case.
After being on the run for about a week, Daniel Hauser and his mother, Colleen, returned home to Minnesota to attend a court hearing and proceed with treatments for Daniel's cancer.

The charges will be dropped against Colleen Hauser and her thirteen-year-old son Daniel who has Hodgkin's lymphoma after the pair fled a court order for chemotherapy.

Jennifer Keller, an attorney from Orange County, California, assisted the arrangement for the Hausers to return.

"She'll abide by what the court says," said Keller, "They always expected to return. She's horrified people perceive her as hiding out. That isn't what she intended. He wasn't in any acute distress. He was quite tired. He was very, very eager to get home."

The court hearing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in New Ulm, Minnesota will decide custody and medical care procedures.

County Attorney James Olson said, "A lot depends upon the attitude of the parents, their willingness to get on board with a treatment plan."

Daniel has only a five percent chance of survival without cancer chemotherapy treatments. Previous testimony revealed that Hodgkin's lymphoma which was diagnosed January has a 90 to 95% success rate for survival with chemotherapy.

The voluntary return of Colleen and Daniel from California was videotaped and arranged by Asgaard Media which submitted the video to authorities.

Daniel is in the care of Brown County protective custody services, but was allowed the night at the family farm in Sleepy Eye supervised by sheriff's deputies. He was seen at a Twin Cities hospital on their arrival Monday according to Tom Hagen, attorney for Collen and Anthony, Daniel's parents.