Police: Iowa City mom accused of letting her toddler drink alcohol blamed babysitter

An Iowa City mother arrested in February after her 23-month-old son was hospitalized with a blood-alcohol content level of .097 told investigators the boy must have consumed the alcohol at a babysitter's house while she was at HyVee, according to search warrant documents.

Natasha Kriener, 26, told officers that she dropped off her nearly 2- and 4-year-old sons with a sitter for a short time on the afternoon of Feb. 15 so she could run to the store, according to a search warrant application for Kriener's home at 2018 Waterfront Drive.

When she picked them up, according to the court documents, Kriener told police they “both appeared to be fine, no smell of alcohol, no balance problems and no signs of intoxication.”

The boys' father picked them up at 6 p.m. and was supposed to return them at 8 p.m., according to the documents. Kriener, who told police she began drinking with neighbors around 6:30 p.m., texted her ex-husband when he didn't bring them back and then called police to report him, the records show.

Both her ex-husband and police told Kriener that her son was being treated after doctors found alcohol in his system. When asked where she thought her son was exposed to the alcohol, Kriener reportedly told police, “It had to be” at the babysitter's house.

Kriener, whose blood-alcohol content level tested at .25 at the time, told police she didn't know the babysitter's phone number or address. She said she had consumed six beers and one mixed drink that night after her children left the house and her plan was “to go to sleep while her boys went to sleep,” according to the documents.

Officers interviewed the man who Kriener said watched her children while she went to HyVee on Feb. 15, and he said he had watched the boys for a couple hours the night of Feb. 14 but he did not see the boys at all on the following day, according to the warrant application.

“I asked (the man) if Natasha knows his cell phone number, and he said yes,” according to the court documents.

Kriener's ex-husband told police that he immediately noticed something was wrong with his youngest son after he brought the children to his apartment in Tiffin on Feb. 15. The child had poor balance, was falling down and was “bumping into stuff,” according to police.

The father took the child to a pediatric clinic at 7 p.m., according to the report, and that's when the older child told the doctor that his brother “drank the pop from the blue glass while mommy was asleep” and got sick.

The father told police he doesn't have any alcohol in his house and has been sober since 1999.

Court documents indicate the Department of Human Services previously has been involved with Kriener.

Kriener was arrested Feb. 17 on suspicion of felony child endangerment causing bodily injury and felony neglect or abandonment. She was released from the Johnson County Jail in March but was ordered to undergo possible evaluation and treatment and was prohibited from contacting her children.

A jury trial is scheduled in her case for June 12.

Police seized four children's cups from Kriener's home during the search on Feb. 24, according to the returned warrant. They did not find any alcohol, according to the documents.