"Toddler Jane" JOHNSON - 3 yo - Caseyville IL

CASEYVILLE, IL --- Police have charged a Metro East
mom with child endangerment after allegedly leaving her toddler alone
in a hotel room. Cops say she claimed the little girl was left with her
father, but police aren't buying it, partially because of the hotel
clerk's story.

Bryan Dent is that clerk, and he says a hotel guest brought the toddler
to him. He doesn't know who long the little girl had been wandering in
the halls of the hotel. He says he kept the child with him in the lobby
for a while, assuming a guest would come looking for her. When no one
claimed the child, he called Caseyville Police.

Police arrived and went to the room where the toddler's mom, Patrice
Johnson, was staying. No one was there. They did, however, find Viagra,
cocaine, heroine, and marijuana.

The 28 year old Johnson works as a dancer at "Club Soft Touch" in
Washington Park. She insists she left the girl with her dad, and now a
search in on for the toddler's father in an effort to verify that story
or debunk it.

The mother of a 3-year-old girl who
police said left the toddler in a Caseyville motel while she worked in
a strip club was arrested early Wednesday hiding in a closet at her
workplace.



Police found Patrice A. Johnson, 28, about 2:30 a.m.
at Soft Touch, 4491 St. Clair Ave. in Washington Park, Caseyville
Police Chief J.D. Roth said."The officers went with warrant in
hand, and the manager reluctantly let them in," Roth said. "They were
pretty sure she was on duty. They had to search the premises and
eventually found her hiding in a closet in the dressing area."
Johnson was being held Wednesday afternoon in the St. Clair County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail. She has been charged with felony unlawful possession of a controlled substance and endangering the life or health of a child. Employees
at a Days Inn, 8950 Tucker Drive in Caseyville, called police about
5:40 a.m. Feb. 20 to report that a young child was seen wandering
around the motel hallways in just a T-shirt and panties for about 45
minutes. Motel staff were unable to contact guests in the child's room,
which was registered to Johnson.Officers responded, and one of
them stayed with the child while the others went to the room. Police
reported that the child seemed unusually hyperactive.The
officers heard noise coming from the room, but no one answered. When
motel workers opened the room, police did not find anyone inside but
saw what looked like cocaine, prescription drugs and other drug
paraphernalia in the room. About an hour after police arrived,
two women walked into the motel lobby and identified themselves as the
child's mother and aunt.Johnson, the mother, told police that
she and the other woman just left work at Soft Touch. She said the
child was supposed to be in the care of the father while the women were
at work, but she didn't know where the father was.Officers then
went with the women and child to their motel room to get clothes for
the child. Police saw the mother take more than $2,000 in cash from a
metal box from under a nightstand and put the money in her coat pocket.Police
took the women in for questioning and notified the Department of
Children and Family Services of the incident. Johnson and the other
woman told police they planned to have sex with the child's father in
another, separate room they rented at the motel. The women said the
child's father is a heroin addict, and has kept a gun in the room.Police were attempting Wednesday to locate the father for questioning. "We'd like to talk to him to get his side of the story," Roth said. It
was later determined the parents have an agreement that the child would
be cared for by the father's sister, who later came to take the child
home.