Former Treatment Center Worker Admits Helping Teen Run Away

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. (AP) — A former employee of a youth treatment center in northern Minnesota has pleaded guilty to giving drugs to a 15-year-old boy and having sex with him after helping him run away from the facility.

Thirty-year-old Melanie Lynn Peterson entered the guilty pleas in Itasca County District Court Tuesday. Prosecutors say Peterson worked the night shift at the Northland Recovery Adolescent Unit in Grand Rapids when she allowed the boy to leave the facility April 26. A criminal complaint says Peterson instructed the boy to go to her apartment where they later consumed Percocet and had sex.

Peterson's bail was revoked following her guilty pleas. Sentencing is scheduled July 26.