Minnesota Mom Chooses Prison for Hiding 2 Teen Daughters

HASTINGS, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota woman has chosen to serve time in prison after being found guilty of hiding her two teenage daughters from their father for more than two years.

Fifty-year-old Sandra Grazzini-Rucki of Stillwater chose Wednesday to serve up to eight months in prison instead of six years of probation and staggered jail time.

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.

But the reports say after the hearing, Grazzini-Rucki chose instead to execute her entire sentence at once.

The teens were found last November 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.