St. Cloud Man Pleads Guilty in Child Harness Case

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud man has pleaded guilty to a felony count of malicious punishment of a child stemming from an incident in February 2012. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors have agreed to drop a second count of gross misdemeanor punishment of a child.

68-year-old Waldamar Tischner was accused of of walking two children with harnesses around their necks and jerking on those harnesses.

The children attended a daycare at his home.

According to the criminal complaint, as many as five witnesses reported to police seeing Tischner push the kids down to the ground and pull them back up again by their collars. Police also noticed scratches and red marks on the children's faces and chin.

Tischner told police at the time he was upset with the children, but never placed a harness around their neck or harmed them.

Tischner will be sentenced may 30th.