A Sapulpa man is arrested and his four children, ages 3 months to 7 years, are in protective custody.

A Sapulpa man was arrested early Thursday on allegations that he left four children in a car in near-freezing temperatures while he was in a Tulsa strip club.

Cardrico Lajuan Nash, 32, was booked into the Tulsa Jail on four felony counts of child endangerment after a former felony conviction.

Witnesses reported seeing the children, ranging in age from 3 months to 7 years, in a car parked outside the Tabu Topless Cabaret in the 3300 block of East 51st Street with no adults present. They called 911 about 1 a.m., according to an arrest report. When police arrived, the four children were asleep.

The temperature outside was about 35 degrees, the report states.

Officers found Nash, the children's father, and learned that he had been in the club for at least an hour, the report states.

The mother of two of the children was working at another Tulsa strip club at the time, and the mother of the other two was at home, Capt. Rick Helberg said.

Nash apparently had picked up the children Wednesday night after not having seen the three older children in a year, Helberg said.

The children, who were not injured, were taken into protective custody after Nash's arrest, he said.

Nash has felony convictions for failing to provide for a child, false impersonation and possession of a firearm while under Department of Corrections supervision.

He faces a Jan. 23 jury trial on a felony drug-trafficking charge and was in the Tulsa Jail on Thursday afternoon with bail set at $25,000.

Clifton Adcock 581-8367
clifton.adcock@tulsaworld.com