HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota woman chose Wednesday to serve time in prison after being found guilty of hiding her two teenage daughters from their father for more than two years.
Sandra Grazzini-Rucki, 50, of Stillwater, chose to serve up to eight months in prison instead of six years of probation and staggered jail time. With time off for good behavior, Grazzini-Rucki likely will be released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Shakopee after five months.
Judge Karen Asphaug initially sentenced Grazzini-Rucki to 34 days in jail this year along with an additional 15 days in each subsequent year until 2022. She was to report each year on Nov. 18, the anniversary of the day her daughters were found last year.
However, after the hearing, Grazzini-Rucki chose instead to execute her entire sentence at once. While an additional court hearing will have to be held, Grazzini-Rucki is allowed to make the request under law, Dakota County Attorney James C. Backstrom said. She was immediately taken into custody after Wednesday's hearing.
Grazzini-Rucki also was fined $944 for each of her daughters, which represents $1 for each day her two daughters were missing. She also was ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the Minnesota Crime Victims' Reparations Board for family reunification efforts in the case, as well as any future counseling expenses for her daughters.
In July a jury convicted Grazzini-Rucki on six counts of deprivation of custodial or parental rights. She was acquitted on two counts of causing minors to be runaways. She could only be sentenced on two of those counts - for depriving the girls' father and aunt of their custodial or parental rights.
The teens were found at a horse ranch in western Minnesota. Prosecutors say Grazzini-Rucki drove the then-13- and 14-year-old girls almost 200 miles from Lakeville, where they were living, to the ranch near Herman to hide them during a bitter divorce.
The girls moved back in with their father late last year.