MINNEAPOLIS — The attorney for a former grain elevator manager accused of stealing $5 million from the cooperative said his client disappeared for nearly three months because he needed to clear his head.

Fifty-six-year-old Jerry Hennessey of Dalton is the former manager of the Ashby Farmers Cooperative Elevator Co. in Ashby.

Minneapolis attorney Thomas Kelly said Hennessey never left the country after vanishing Sept. 10, but he wouldn’t disclose details on where he went. Hennessey turned himself in to federal authorities on Tuesday. He’s charged with mail fraud.

He and his wife, Rebecca, also face a lawsuit in Grant County alleging that they stole about $5 million over the past 15 years from the grain elevator that Hennessey managed for nearly 30 years. Rebecca Hennessey has not been criminally charged.