Stephan Natseway was arrested in New Mexico on August 30 after police said he left his 20-month-old twins in a locked car for about two and a half hours while he went to Dirty Bourbon Dance Hall & Saloon. The case centers on melatonin only in the sense that investigators said he told police he wanted time for himself, then stayed long enough for the children to be found sweating and lethargic.
Dirty Bourbon Dance Hall & Saloon
Officers with the Albuquerque Police Department responded to Dirty Bourbon Dance Hall & Saloon around 1:34 a.m. after a security guard reported two children alone in a vehicle. Security guards broke the driver's window and got the toddlers out of the car seats, which were not secured to the vehicle, with the windows rolled up.
Gilbert Gallegos said the children were in bad condition when officers reached them. He said, "The kids were very lethargic, seemed to be unconscious at the time but they were breathing." He added, "Once they pulled them out of car seats they started to come to and regain consciousness. Officers noticed right away their clothes were drenched with sweat, they had soiled themselves."
Stephan Natseway
Police wrote that Natseway said he left his children in the vehicle while he went to Dirty Bourbon to have time for himself. They also wrote that he said he tried to call family members to watch the kids for the night, but no family members were available. In the same summary, he said he drove to Dirty Bourbon and would not have stayed long but people dancing with him made him unable to leave.
Natseway said he got to the bar around 10:30 p.m., and employees scanned his identification at 10:54 p.m. Police said that timing put the twins in the car for roughly the period that ended with the early-morning response at 1:34 a.m., matching the about two and a half hours investigators cited.
Metro Detention Center
Natseway was charged with two counts of child abuse not resulting in great bodily harm, two counts of child abandonment not resulting in great bodily harm and two counts of open child abuse. He is being held at the Metro Detention Center without bond.
Orry Morris was also arrested because he allegedly knew the children had been left in the vehicle while they were at the bar, but prosecutors later dropped his charges amid the investigation. For Natseway, the immediate legal question is whether the state can prove the children were left unattended long enough, and in a state serious enough, to support all six charges as the case moves forward.
