It was 7 degrees with a windchill of 5 below zero when a 4-year-old Roseville girl dressed in a thin T-shirt and socks was found running along a snowbank outside an apartment building in late January, court documents said.

When the girl's mother was found, she initially told police she'd spent the night at a friend's house and asked another friend to baby-sit the girl and her 12-year-old brother. She later said she'd spent the night at Mystic Lake Casino and hadn't found anyone to watch the children, the documents said.

Angela M. Johnson, 35, of Roseville, has been charged in Ramsey County District Court with one count of child neglect, a gross misdemeanor.

According to the criminal complaint, which was made public Friday, a woman called police about the 4-year-old at 8:45 a.m. Jan. 25.

When officers arrived, the girl told them her hands and feet hurt, her mother had gone to their grandmother's house and her brother had left for school. She didn't know her last name, her brother's name or what school he attended, the complaint said.

Officers found the girl's apartment and learned her name. She did not suffer frostbite or other injuries, the documents said.

Johnson called police when she returned home about 10:30 a.m.

After telling one story, Johnson then admitted she'd spent the night at the casino and "had assumed her son would stay home [from school] until she arrived," the complaint said.

The Roseville case is the most recent of a string of cases in which children have been left to fend for themselves or have been found outside improperly dressed and without supervision.

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551