A couple who both work at a popular Vermont ski resort have been charged with allegedly leaving their 2-year-old daughter alone in a car while the pair went skiing, police said, according to published news reports.
Katelynn Brent, 21, and Cory Ahern, 29, the biological parents of the toddler, were arrested on Feb. 8. Brent was charged with a misdemeanor of DUI and cruelty to a child, and Ahern was charged with cruelty to a child, according to the Killington Police Department.
Police were alerted to a parking lot located somewhere within the Killington Resort regarding a child being left alone and unattended in a vehicle. When police later located the vehicle and stopped the car to investigate, they said they found the child in the backseat and the driver of the vehicle, the child’s mother, intoxicated.
“She appeared impaired and she was screened for DUI and arrested for the same,” the arresting officer, Michael Hoffman, of the Killington Police Department told Digital.
A breathalyzer confirmed that Brent had a 0.101, which is past the legal limit of .08, Hoffman said.
Brent was issued a citation and released later that day. Both are scheduled to appear at Rutland Criminal Court at 11 a.m. on Feb. 28, Hoffman said.
According to police, Brent denied that she and her partner had left their child in the vehicle. However, after interviewing with police, authorities said the couple admitted that they left the child alone in their car while they were skiing.
Police said the parents, who both work at the Killington Resort, have ski passes with their employment, and on Feb. 8, they had gone on the ski lift approximately 10 times, according to resort management, the release said.
The pair both later claimed that they checked on the child after each “run,” Hoffman said. He also told Digital that he was not exactly sure how many hours the toddler was alone in the car, but said the couple began skiing at 11 a.m. and ended at approximately 4 p.m. He said the temperature that day was around 28 degrees.
The Vermont Department of Children and Families and the New York State Department of Child Protective Services are aware of the above findings, police said.