Multiple charges of child endangerment were filed Monday against a Casper mother accused of leaving six young children home alone while she went to a local dance club, District Attorney Kevin Meenan said.

Tracy L. Smith, 26, is alleged to have left six girls, ages 4 to 9, alone during a sleepover Oct. 3 at her apartment in the 1000 block of West 14th Street, according to police.

Smith, who faces six counts of child endangerment and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor, is also accused of allowing the girls to drink beer and wine coolers, court documents state.

Three of the girls were Smith's daughters, the rest were her children's friends.

Contacted at her home Tuesday morning, Smith said she was unaware that charges had been formally filed against her. In a telephone interview, she said she neither gave the children alcohol nor knowingly left the children alone at the apartment.

The children's aunt, who Smith said is the sister of her oldest daughter's dad, agreed to watch the kids, she contends. Furthermore, Smith denied allowing any of the girls to drink alcohol.

"The beer and the wine coolers that the aunt said I bought for her was in the refrigerator. They were bought a couple days previous to the date that it happened," Smith said.

Smith, who had not yet been arrested, said the incident caused her to lose her job with the state. She reportedly cared for disabled children.

According to the police report, Smith gave her eldest child no indication that she would be gone for hours when she left the house the night of Oct. 3, a Friday.

She went to get "a six-pack of beer" around 11 p.m., the girls told a police officer who was called to a convenience store around 2:50 a.m. the next morning.

The girls reportedly walked to the store at CY and Poplar streets to call the police because they were scared that Smith had not returned home, according to a police report.

The officer contacted parents and guardians of the other children and then took Smith's girls home, where the officer allegedly saw numerous bottles for beer, wine coolers and whiskey scattered throughout Smith's apartment, the affidavit said.

Police released Smith's girls into the temporary custody of the aunt, who allegedly reported to police that Smith had bought the beer and wine coolers for the girls to drink while Smith went to the Beacon Club that night.

Police say the aunt, who reported being at Smith's home that night, denied that Smith asked her to watch the girls. The aunt claimed she was told by Smith that a downstairs neighbor agreed to watch them, according to police.

But in an interview with police, the neighbor denied any such agreement, the report said.

Smith said her three children, ages 9, 5 and 4, are in the custody of the Department of Family Services in Casper.

Warrant sought in separate, similar case

Police are seeking a warrant for the arrest of another mother, a 35-year-old Casper woman, who allegedly gave her children and two of their friends strawberry daiquiris "hoping they would pass out," according to documents filed Tuesday in Natrona County Circuit Court.

One of the children identified in the documents, a 9-year-old girl, was also at the Smith's house during that incident.

In the latest case, authorities were called to Teresa Irwin's apartment in the 2600 block of South McKinley Street on Saturday around 8 p.m. by Irwin's husband, who had just bonded out of jail, the report said.

The man reportedly told police that he went home and discovered that his children, two girls, ages 10 and 11, were home alone with two of their friends. The children alleged that their mom and another man had given them alcohol, taken them on a drunken ride up and down the mountain and then left for Gillette for "a couple of days."

The girls told police that the man, who had allegedly consumed a few 18-packs of beer with their mom that day, nearly caused them to get into a head-on collision coming down the mountain.

The children said their mother and the man left for Gillette around 6:30 Saturday night.

The warrant is being sought on charges of abandonment and endangerment, the affidavit said.

Meenan said last week that his office has reviewed only a handful of cases in the past year in which criminal charges had been brought against parents or guardians who were accused of leaving young children at home unattended.

"I'd be guessing, but I think, every year, we have about a half-dozen cases like that - some years, none," Meenan said. "A lot of times, (children) are left in a car and the parents are inside the bar drinking, or they're in the store."

He said these types of case are considered unusual, though many probably go unreported.

"It may go on more than we know," said Meenan.

Mike Baden, a DFS case worker, added Tuesday that just because two such cases were reported to police in a short span doesn't mean it's happening all the time.

"In my experience, it's fairly rare." he said. "With Casper being a smaller community, two cases in a short time seems to indicate a trend - and then we might go 10 years without another one."