Mom Allegedly Breastfed Her Infant While Drinking Beer at a Bar: 'Partying Was More Important'
A woman was arrested at an Indianapolis bar early Friday after she was allegedly seen breastfeeding her 7-month-old daughter while drinking beer and offering to have sex with people who would go inside and buy her more beer, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
Shari Treba, 42, faces a felony charge for neglect of a dependent along with a misdemeanor charge for public intoxication.
The father of her child, 45-year-old Michael Trosclair, faces the same charges and police allege he was angry and belligerent at the scene, according to the couple’s arrest affidavits.
Authorities claim Trosclair resisted arrest as the police tried to put him in handcuffs.
The affidavits show that the couple was in Indianapolis for a work conference. A witness reported that Treba was allegedly drinking alcohol while also breastfeeding her baby at a downtown bar and soliciting other people for beer, according to the court documents.
Indianapolis police arrived on scene shortly before 1 a.m. Friday to find Treba standing near the infant, who was sleeping in a stroller, while allegedly drinking a beer outside the bar’s roped-in area.
The affidavit states that Treba confirmed the baby was hers, but she struggled to produce identification or respond to the officers’ questions due to her intoxication.
A witness also alleged that Treba at one point chained her child’s stroller outside the bar so she could go in and buy a drink, according to the court documents, which also show Treba’s breath alcohol concentration was 0.193 percent.
According to police, a door man at the bar said he was told to keep Treba off the property, outside the ropes, because she had her child wth her, the affidavit states.
When police asked Treba why she was at the bar with her baby, Treba allegedly said she had come out to drink with friends from work, according to the affidavit. Police said she did not deny breastfeeding the child.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Trosclair, the infant’s father, approached the scene and became angry, the court documents allege, and he repeatedly insisted he call a lawyer. Police put Trosclair in handcuffs because they thought he might try to start a fight while the baby was nearby, according to the affidavit.
“Partying was more important than their child,” an officer wrote in the affidavit.
Court documents show the child was taken into state custody. She was examined at a nearby hospital where she was found to have no signs of intoxication or other physical signs of neglect or abuse.
Both Treba and Trosclair have been released from custody, with a court hearing scheduled on Aug. 3. They have not entered pleas to their charges.
It was not immediately clear if they have retained attorneys and efforts to reach them for comment on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
