Mother who punished her children with cruel “sentences” gets jail time

The mother who doled out  “sentences” to her children as punishments will spend several days in jail.

Alisha Kay Miller, 39, was sentenced to six days in custody at the Brown County Jail on a charge of felony 3rd-degree assault.  Miller initially faced 16 charges, including 3rd-degree assault, malicious punishment of a child, child neglect, and child endangerment. All of the charges were dropped as part of the plea deal except the count on which she was convicted.

Brown County District Court Judge Robert Docherty stayed an additional 15 days of jail and gave Miller credit for three days already served. Miller will be booked for her jail sentence on October 13.

If she successfully completes her three-year probation, her conviction will be downgraded to a misdemeanor, according to the sentencing order.

Miller and her husband, Jesse Hedlund, were accused of punishing their children by making them write up to 1,000 pages for their “offenses.” The children were also hit on the head with a broken wood spoon called the “thinking stick,” and forced to go without meals as they sat with soap in their mouths for up to 13 hours. Investigators say there were visible signs of abuse on at least one of the children.

Hedlund was charged with sexual abuse in the weeks following the initial accusations.  He has not yet been sentenced.