Inset: Cassandra Santos (Grand Forks County Sheriff's Office). Background: Crow Hill Recreation Center in Oberon, N.D. (Google Maps).
A North Dakota mother faces federal charges after authorities said she ran over one of her children and left another on a road.
Cassandra Santos, 37, was charged on Oct. 9 with one count of assault resulting in substantial bodily injury and three counts of child neglect in Indian Country following a series of incidents involving her three children. According to an affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime and filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, the first alleged incident happened at the Crow Hill Recreation Center on the Spirit Lake Reservation on July 6. An FBI agent wrote that Santos' 1-year-old child was "run over" by her during a prayer service.
The agent spoke with Santos, who provided "inconsistent and contradicting" stories about whether she was drinking alcohol that day. The baby's grandmother and aunt later told the agent that they smelled alcohol on Santos the day of the alleged incident.
When the agent spoke to Santos, she said she did not mean to hurt her child and that she "wished someone had been watching" her child at the time. Witnesses said Santos' other two children were in the car with her.
The 1-year-old was taken to a hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, where medical staff said the baby had a fractured right femur, a crush injury and abrasions to the left leg and foot.
About a month later, on Aug. 7, a patrol officer responded to a call about a boy alone on a road. The boy, identified as Santos' oldest child, was found by police walking on the side of a road wearing a T-shirt and shorts but no shoes. The boy told police that Santos had brought him to his cousin's house, but he did not want to stay there, so he left to walk home.
When police found Santos, she was with a group of people who "all appeared to be under the influence." Santos told police that all her children were "safe at different houses."
According to the affidavit, the FBI attempted to talk to Santos' two older children at their school. School staff told the agents that the children had been called out sick. The FBI agent wrote that she heard a call over the police radio concerning Santos and went to the Fort Totten Police Department to find out more information.
The agent was told that Santos had been arrested after police found her passed out on the floor of her Chevy Tahoe. Her two older children were outside the truck, and they told police officers that their mother was "taking a nap." When the officers found Santos, she was "uncooperative." She was given a breath test, which registered a 0.196 blood alcohol concentration.
Police said they found empty containers of alcohol in the Tahoe. When the officers spoke to the children, they reportedly said their mother "sometimes … drank every day."
Santos is in custody at the Grand Forks County Jail. Her next court date was not publicly available.
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