Police Arrest Woman Accused of Child Neglect, Endangerment

A Red Wing woman accused of allowing her room unsupervised while the woman was drunk and nearly unconscious was arrested Tuesday.

Amber Elaine Czerwinski, 28, is charged with child neglect and child endangerment. Both charges are gross misdemeanors, each with a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.  

Czerwinski was arrested Tuesday in Red Wing and is being held in the Dakota County Jail. She is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges at 11 a.m. today in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

Authorities had been seeking Czerwinski since March 31, when Lakeville police responded to a call from the hotel’s front desk clerk about a man acting strangely in the lobby. When they entered a room that the man had rented, they found Czerwinski  nearly unconscious on the bed, with her daughter sitting beside her.

Officers also found pill bottles and wrappers and had to take a pill wrapper away from the child, who was chewing on it. Police say the little girl also had Vaseline and ChapStick all over her face and appeared to have been eating them.

Police also found a warm container of milk sitting on the floor beside the room’s refrigerator, a child’s cup containing “foul-smelling” milk, the remnants of an old bowl of oatmeal, old cheese, partially eaten candy bars and a partially eaten lemon with child-size teeth marks in the peel.

The child had an extremely wet diaper. When police changed it, they found a “severe” rash on her legs and pelvic area, according to the criminal complaint against Czerwinski.