Mother of year candidate

Just the photo will likely get our blog shut down, but what the hey. If we can't bring it up at 2GH2 then maybe the world isn't ready for it

Kids in car during sex, drug bust
Schenectady police say woman prostituted herself, used cocaine with her children present

By PAUL NELSON, Staff writer

First published: Tuesday, October 2, 2007

SCHENECTADY -- In what one officer called one of the most despicable acts he can recall, a Saratoga County woman is accused of prostituting herself and then snorting cocaine from the stomach of her newborn son while breast-feeding him.

Police said Wendy Cook of Saratoga Springs was on a drug-fueled spree Monday when she was arrested during a crackdown on prostitution in the Hamilton Hill, Central State Street and Vale Cemetery areas.


Four other women were also arrested during the operation.

Cook, 37, was being held in Schenectady County Jail on charges of fourth-degree prostitution. She also faces child endangerment charges for allegedly performing oral sex on men during two separate encounters while her 8-week-old son and 5-year-old daughter were in the back seat of the car she was in.

The tot was napping during both incidents but the girl was awake, said police.

Both children are now staying with relatives.

"This ranks near the top of the all-time-despicable-crime list in Schenectady," said city police spokesman Brian Kilcullen, who has been on the force for 13 years.

A woman who Monday night answered a call placed to a Saratoga Springs number listed on the police report said Cook had stayed there for a time. She declined to comment further.

Police investigators said they learned that Cook had been out all night smoking crack and snorting cocaine -- with her children present.

According to the police report, Cook inhaled lines of powdered cocaine off the infant's stomach as she breast-fed him while riding around Schenectady.

Cook was nabbed at 7:13 a.m. Monday at Swan and State streets after she allegedly offered sex for money to an undercover Schenectady police officer working a prostitution sting. It was only then that detectives learned that Cook's two children were in a car a few blocks away on Catherine Street, according to the police report.

After her arrest, she allegedly told a friend she had been thinking about selling the two kids to get more money for drugs, according to the police report.

Cook, who is being held without bail at Schenectady County Jail, is due back in City Court today after being arraigned Monday. She declined a request for a jailhouse interview.

She is charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child, first-degree felony reckless endangerment and fourth-degree prostitution.

Also arrested for prostitution were city residents Florence Bowman, 39; Kattie Yutes, 28; Virginia Weldon, 41; and Catherine Pritchard, 44.

Paul Nelson can be reached at 454-5347 or by e-mail at pnelson@timesunion.com.