Charge: Dad left 2-year-old in car, got drunk in Minn. bar

A man left his sleeping 2-year-old son in a car with the engine running late on a cold night and spent about an hour drinking in a west-central Minnesota bar, where police found him extremely intoxicated, authorities said.

Christopher R. Jasperson, 27, of Montevideo, was charged last week with gross-misdemeanor child endangerment and remained jailed Thursday in lieu of $6,000 bail.

Jasperson's criminal history includes a drunken-driving conviction in 2009 and three underage alcohol consumption convictions in less than a year while in his late teens.

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers were notified about 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 14 of a young child sleeping in a car outside the Inn Like Flinns bar in Montevideo. Officers saw the child asleep in a car seat behind the driver's seat. The engine was running.

Police located Jasperson in the bar and asked him to come outside. Jasperson stepped out to the car with the officer.

Jasperson acknowledged leaving the child in the car, adding that he was the boy's father and sole guardian.

A bartender told police that Jasperson had been there for about an hour and drank three 22-ounce beers.

Jasperson initially told police he was in the bar for about 15 minutes and drank half a beer. But when pressed, Jasperson acknowledged drinking much more beer at the bar as well as a six=pack of beer before driving that night.

The boy was turned over to a relative.

The temperature at the time of the arrest was 14 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482