A Texas woman is facing child endangerment charges after allegedly bringing her 10-year-old son into the cab of a tractor-trailer at a New Hampshire truck stop and having sex with the driver in exchange for a ride to Texas.
Police said 34-year-old Crystal Walden, of Hurst, was drunk when she brought her underdressed child to the Travel Center of America truck stop in Greenland, N.H., on Saturday night in an attempt to return to Texas to her husband.
Police said Walden and her children moved to the Portsmouth area three days before an incident with her mother, who claimed in court that she has custody of the children. They were reportedly staying at a family member's home.
Walden is charged with two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child for getting into an "unknown male's vehicle and engaging in sexual intercourse" in front of the child and for not having the child properly dressed for the cold weather. A police affidavit indicates the child did not have a coat or shoes on when they found him at the truck stop.
According to the affidavit, Walden said people at the child's new school talked about snowpants and "I didn't know what that was."
Court documents indicate the boy told police his mother knocked on the first truck they saw and asked for a ride to Texas. He indicated the driver said "he would if his mother would have sex with him."
Authorities have not indicated whether the truck driver will face any charges.
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The judge conditioned Walden's release on her not having any unsupervised contact with her children. Her next court appearance is Feb. 11.
