Dad crashes car while driving drunk, walks kids through sub-zero weather without adequate clothing, shoes (Sterling Heights, Michigan)

Dad ARMANDO KOSTA was apparently babysitting when he got drunk and crashed his car into a ditch. He then took his two kids that were with him, ages 2 and 4, and proceeded to walk through snow and subzero temperatures till he could find help. The kids did not have hats or gloves, and the 2-year-old son only had one shoe. By the time they found shelter, the kids were "crying and shivering uncontrollably."

This looks like another case where dad was the "caretaker" (read: unemployed drunken bum) while Mom was bringing home the bacon, since it's mentioned that she had to leave her place employment to come get the kids and take them to the hospital.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100106/NEWS04/100106023/1322/Sterling-Heights-dad-accused-of-driving-drunk-walking-kids-through-snow

Posted: 10:05 a.m. Jan. 6, 2010
Sterling Heights dad accused of driving drunk, walking kids through snow
By TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A Sterling Heights father is facing a felony child abuse charge after he walked his children – one without a shoe -- a half-mile in the snow and below-zero temperatures after driving off the road in Harrison Township while drunk, police said.

“We had a temp of 9 degrees with a 12 m.p.h. wind; I believe the windchill was 11 below,” Clinton Township Police Captain Richard Maierle said today about Saturday’s incident with Armando Kosta, 36, his 4-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son at 5:55 p.m. “He crashed the car in the ditch, got out of the car, took the two kids out – they didn’t have any hats or gloves on – and he walked about a half-mile with the kids.”

After walking from the accident site on Union Lake Road just south of Metro Parkway, the children went into an apartment building at 35580 Union Lake Road, where the father began knocking on doors, looking for help.

His son was only wearing one shoe, Maierle said.

“They were crying and shivering uncontrollably,” he said, adding that Kosta has a clean record.

Police stayed with the children until their mother arrived at the scene from work to take them to the hospital, Maierle said. Their conditions were unknown today.

Kosta, who was released over the weekend on $7,500 bond, is scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 15 in 41B District Court in Clinton Township. He faces charges of second-degree child abuse, punishable by up to four years in jail; drunken driving; drunken driving with passengers younger than 16 and leaving the scene of an accident. Police submitted a blood sample to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab to check Kosta’s blood-alcohol level, and results take about two weeks, Maierle said.