Police say Tama County woman left nieces alone in Minnesota hotel room

A Montour woman has been charged with child neglect after she allegedly left her two nieces alone in a Minnesota hotel while she and a Tama man went to a strip club and casino Friday.

Around midnight Thursday, Bloomington, Minn. police were dispatched to the Marriott Hotel at 2020 American Boulevard East, for a report of children being left unattended. Hotel staff members told officers that two children, a 6-year-old and a 1-year-old, were wandering around the hotel lobby.

The children told staff members what room they were staying in, and they were looking for their “aunt and uncle.” Hotel staff told authorities the room was registered to 39-year-old Douglas Cadotte. Officers searched the room to find it empty and a complete mess, a criminal complaint said. Authorities said they found open alcohol bottles, dirty diapers on the floor and no food in the room.

Officials said the girls were taken to St. Joseph's Home for Children in Minneapolis.

A criminal complaint said a front desk employee recalled Cadotte as being intoxicated, and that he checked in with a female, later identified as 18-year-old Alexah Mauskemo, and the children. The hotel's shuttle bus driver reported getting a cab for Cadotte and Mauskemo, and reported he overheard them saying they were going to a strip club in Minneapolis, a criminal complaint said.

Around 6:53 a.m. Friday, Mauskemo and Cadotte returned to the hotel and were arrested. Mauskemo was charged with two counts of child neglect. Cadotte was charged with felony drug possession after police found methamphetamine in his pocket.

The mother of the children told officials Mauskemo asked to take the children on a weekend trip to the Mall of America on February 22. The mother reported Mauskemo did not bring the children back on February 24 as she was supposed to, and she “blamed the weather,” a criminal complaint said.

Mausekmo told officials she thought Cadotte was going to get a babysitter, but never saw a babysitter and “did not really care if one was coming.” She confessed to knowing that the children were most likely in the room alone, but left anyways because she “didn't care,” a criminal complaint said.

Cadotte denied ever discussing a babysitter and denied taking any responsibility for the care of the children, authorities said.

The older girl told officers she had been with her “aunt and uncle for multiple days and that she didn't know when they were coming back.” Mauskemo admitted smoking methamphetamine that night.