Police: Mom goes to work at strip club, leaves 3-year-old in underwear, T-shirt
samsung1
Ohio
The mother of a 3-year-old girl was charged Tuesday after police said the toddler was found wandering around a Caseyville motel in a T-shirt and underwear while the woman was at work in a strip club.
Police were searching Tuesday night for the woman, identified as Patrice A. Johnson, 28.
Johnson's last known address is unclear, but police said she stays in metro-east motels when she works at the Soft Touch club in Washington Park.
Patrice Johnson. - Provided/BND
Johnson was charged Tuesday with felony unlawful possession of a controlled substance and endangering the life or health of a child. Bond was set at $25,000.
Employees at a Days Inn, 8950 Tucker Drive in Caseyville, called police about 5:40 a.m. Feb. 20 to report that a young child was seen wandering around the motel hallways in just a T-shirt and panties for about 45 minutes. Motel staff were unable to contact guests in the child's room, which was registered to Johnson.
Officers responded, and one of them stayed with the child while the others went to the room. Police reported that the child seemed unusually hyperactive.
The officers heard noise coming from the room, but no one answered. When motel workers opened the room, police did not find anyone inside but saw what looked like cocaine, prescription drugs and other drug paraphernalia in the room.
"We don't have anything to confirm that the child got into the drugs other than possibly suspecting that because of the child's behavior," Caseyville Police Chief J.D. Roth said. "Maybe it was anxiety or shock because the child was left alone."
Roth said the child's legal guardian told police she would have the child medically evaluated, but police had not heard from the guardian as of Tuesday night.
About an hour after police arrived, two women walked into the motel lobby and identified themselves as the child's mother and aunt.
Johnson, the mother, told police that she and the other woman just left work at Soft Touch. She said the child was supposed to be in the care of the father while the women were at work, but she didn't know where the father was.
Officers then went with the women and child to their motel room to get clothes for the child. Police saw the mother take more than $2,000 in cash from a metal box from under a night stand and put the money in her coat pocket.
Police took the women in for questioning and notified the Department of Children and Family Services of the incident. Johnson and the other woman told police they planned to have sex with the child's father in another, separate room they rented at the motel. The women said the child's father is a heroin addict, and has kept a gun in the room.
"There seems to be an issue here with people involved in substance abuse where people neglect their kids," Roth said. "They get their priorities mixed up and it's unfortunate for the kids, that's for sure."
It was later determined the child's legal guardian is the father's sister, who later came to take the child home.
http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/03/1157416/wa…
Police were searching Tuesday night for the woman, identified as Patrice A. Johnson, 28.
Johnson's last known address is unclear, but police said she stays in metro-east motels when she works at the Soft Touch club in Washington Park.
Patrice Johnson. - Provided/BND
Johnson was charged Tuesday with felony unlawful possession of a controlled substance and endangering the life or health of a child. Bond was set at $25,000.
Employees at a Days Inn, 8950 Tucker Drive in Caseyville, called police about 5:40 a.m. Feb. 20 to report that a young child was seen wandering around the motel hallways in just a T-shirt and panties for about 45 minutes. Motel staff were unable to contact guests in the child's room, which was registered to Johnson.
Officers responded, and one of them stayed with the child while the others went to the room. Police reported that the child seemed unusually hyperactive.
The officers heard noise coming from the room, but no one answered. When motel workers opened the room, police did not find anyone inside but saw what looked like cocaine, prescription drugs and other drug paraphernalia in the room.
"We don't have anything to confirm that the child got into the drugs other than possibly suspecting that because of the child's behavior," Caseyville Police Chief J.D. Roth said. "Maybe it was anxiety or shock because the child was left alone."
Roth said the child's legal guardian told police she would have the child medically evaluated, but police had not heard from the guardian as of Tuesday night.
About an hour after police arrived, two women walked into the motel lobby and identified themselves as the child's mother and aunt.
Johnson, the mother, told police that she and the other woman just left work at Soft Touch. She said the child was supposed to be in the care of the father while the women were at work, but she didn't know where the father was.
Officers then went with the women and child to their motel room to get clothes for the child. Police saw the mother take more than $2,000 in cash from a metal box from under a night stand and put the money in her coat pocket.
Police took the women in for questioning and notified the Department of Children and Family Services of the incident. Johnson and the other woman told police they planned to have sex with the child's father in another, separate room they rented at the motel. The women said the child's father is a heroin addict, and has kept a gun in the room.
"There seems to be an issue here with people involved in substance abuse where people neglect their kids," Roth said. "They get their priorities mixed up and it's unfortunate for the kids, that's for sure."
It was later determined the child's legal guardian is the father's sister, who later came to take the child home.
http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/03/1157416/wa…
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2 comments
Kids get raised by whoever steps up to do it, and the father in this story will probably be back in jail in few days. Someday Johnson, the mother, will raise her grandchildren just like her grandmother raised her. It's a culture of have-not's. Blacks and whites, born to lose. And of course they'll be Democrats - the Republicans have no interest in this segment of society.