Police arrest passed-out parents

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Police arrested two parents April 24 after their toddlers were seen running around a parking lot in the middle of the night.

Police found Randy Tabaha and Yolanda John passed out inside room 142 of the Thunderbird Motel about 12:30 a.m., according to Gallup Police Officer Andy Yearly’s report.

There was an infant in the room, seated in a stroller, his diaper sagging and full. The other children, ages 2 and 3, whose diapers were also sagging, were “running around in the parking lot,” according to the report.

John, whose blood-alcohol level later showed a .21, told police that the children hadn’t eaten since that morning.

There were two bottles in the room, one empty, the other half-full of warm milk. A warm milk carton was out on a table. Police also found a half-empty bottle of 100-proof peppermint schnapps and several empty cans of malt liquor.

Tabaha’s blood-alcohol level later showed a .376 — more than four times the legal limit to drive. He had difficulty keeping his eyes open, according to the report.

“Randy Sr. and Yolanda did not seem concerned at all as they were not calling the children, and I had to continually call (the children) back in the room to have them stay in the room so they would not get injured in any way,” the report reads.

John could not remember her children’s birthdays, nor her own, according to the report.

The motel clerk told police she had seen John and Tabaha arguing near a red pickup earlier the same evening. Police found scratches and dried blood on both parents’ faces, but they both denied any altercation.

Police arrested each parent for three counts of child abuse, a third-degree felony.

Reporter Phil Stake can be reached at philip.stake@gmail.com, or by calling (505) 863-6811 x223.