MOM ACCUSED OF ABANDONING GIRL IN TAVERN BLAMES ALCOHOL

'I was drunk,' she says, adding that she doesn't remember much of night

A woman who allegedly abandoned her disabled daughter in a tavern Wednesday
night sat dejected on a courthouse bench Friday, complaining about being alone.

As she waited to talk to a prosecutor about what happened, the woman -- who
smelled of alcohol -- sobbed and said she couldn't remember much of the
incident. But the worst part, she said, was that she feels like she has no one.

"Now there's nothing left for me," she said, adding that she was going to
check herself into a hospital for depression.

"Now she's gone forever, probably," she said, referring to her 5-year-old
daughter, who is in protective custody.

The woman wasn't too thrilled to see reporters. But she wouldn't stop talking.

"I'm, like, a hopeless case," the woman said, head cast down, shoulders
slumped. "It's extremely hopeless, and now it's worse that I don't have her."

The woman said she doesn't remember too much about the incident "because I
was drunk."

"I shouldn't drink," she said. "I'm an alcoholic. If I do take the first
drink, who knows what'll happen, and now I'm suffering the consequences."

Asked why she picked up that first drink, the woman said: "I have no idea. I
don't want to talk about it anymore. I can't believe I'm on the news, but
it's such a sensational story. It's very sad, yeah."

Later, a prosecutor led the woman into the district attorney's office for a
conference to determine whether criminal charges would be filed. The
assistant district attorney assigned to the case said no decision would be
made Friday. He still wants to talk to the woman's boyfriend, who was also
in the bar Wednesday. The woman is not being named because she hasn't been
charged.

Police said the mother took her daughter -- who has cerebral palsy and must
eat through a tube -- to the Ricochette On In bar, 7009 W. Capitol Drive,
about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday.

The woman argued with her boyfriend over who would care for the girl and
then stormed out of the bar when the bartender refused to serve her, leaving
her daughter, police said.

Tavern workers and patrons called police; the man left the scene before they
arrived because he didn't want to get involved, patrons said. Later, the
woman was arrested after causing a disturbance at her Brown Deer apartment.

"I thought I was leaving her (the daughter) with my boyfriend," the mother
said Friday, hours after being released from jail.

Jay Schwabe, the woman's ex-boyfriend and the father of the 5-year-old girl,
said he and the woman met at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He left her
almost three years ago, he said, because alcohol had completely taken over
her life.

The day the woman went into labor with their daughter, he said, she was so
drunk that he had to argue with her to get her into the car to go to the
hospital.

He said he has had joint custody of the girl for the last four years, but
the woman has repeatedly refused to let him visit the child.

Now, Schwabe is going to court to try to get full custody. The hearing, he
said, is set for Tuesday.

"It'll be a lot of responsibility, but we're ready for it," said Schwabe,
who has remarried and has an infant child at home. "At least she'll be taken
care of here."

At the courthouse, the mother said she'd been through this routine before.
She left the girl with a boyfriend for six hours last October and went to a
bar. No charges were issued.

The woman said she's struggled with alcohol abuse for two decades. It's hard
to stop drinking, she said before shuffling away, "especially when you're
alone."

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett