Man Charged in Child Harness Incident

ST. CLOUD -- A St. Cloud man has been charged with two counts of malicious punishment of a child after an incident late last month involving two children who attended a day care at his home. One of those charges is a felony because the child was under 4-years-old.

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

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 he was upset with the children, but never placed a harness around their neck or harmed them.

Tischner's first court appearance is scheduled for April 23rd.