Grove Couple Charged With Neglect For Leaving Kids In Casino Hotel

A Grove couple turned themselves in Tuesday after child neglect charges were filed against them stemming from a July incident at a Tulsa casino hotel, an arrest affidavit shows. 

Douglas and Sara Bottoroff were each charged with child neglect on September 1, 2017, after police said they left their two young children in a hotel room at the River Spirit Casino Hotel on July 27, 2017. 

The two children, ages 11 and 10, were discovered in the hotel room alone at the resort around 9 a.m. on July 27 after a family member called hotel security and asked them to do a welfare check, the affidavit states. 

When a security officer knocked on the hotel room door, a young boy opened the door and the officer saw that there was another child in the room and that there weren't any adults present. 

The security officer then dispatched a Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Police Officer to the room who asked the children where their parents were but the children said they didn't know. The boy told the officer that he'd last talked to his parents at 2 a.m. on July 27 on the phone when his mother called and said that they were on their way back from getting cigarettes. 

The other child told the officer that she last spoke to her mother on the phone a little after 10:30 p.m. on July 26 when her mother, Sara Bottoroff, said they were at the blackjack tables in the casino.

Calls to both Sara and Douglas Bottoroff's cell phones by the officer were unsuccessful, and the Bottoroffs' pickup wasn't on casino property, according to the affidavit. 

Tulsa County Child Protective Services was then called and while waiting for a caseworker to arrive, Sara Bottoroff called the hotel check-in desk requesting to rent the hotel room for another night. A hotel security corporal then spoke to Sara Botteroff and told her that she and her husband needed to return to the casino, the affidavit shows. 

The Bottoroffs arrived back at the hotel around 11 a.m. and were interviewed by the caseworker, and they said they'd left the casino to give two people a ride home and that their truck had been stolen, according to the affidavit. 

The couple later admitted to lying about their truck being stolen and said they'd left the casino on July 26 to go to an unknown residence to smoke either methamphetamine or crack with two people they'd met, according to the affidavit. 

Charges were filed Sept. 1 and both Sara and Douglas Bottoroff turned themselves in on Sept. 12. 

They bonded out on $25,000 each and are due in court on Sept. 19.