A Mandan man has been charged with abuse or neglect of a child for allegedly attempting to care for two young children while intoxicated.

Joshua Martin was charged Tuesday with the Class C felony. South Central District Judge David Reich set a $1,500 cash or surety bond for Martin and ordered him to have no contact with the two children.

Mandan Police Lt. Paul Leingang said officers responded to a home on the 700 block of Elm Street for a report of an intoxicated man who would not leave the home and was getting physical with the residents.

According to an affidavit from Mandan Police Officer William Stepp, officers arrived at the home at 9:46 p.m. and saw a man matching the description of the intoxicated man leaving the home.

Martin was stumbling, holding a 2-year-old boy by the hand and carrying an infant girl, the affidavit said.

"Her head was hanging down unsupported, and her arms were sticking rather upward, as if she was going to slip through his arm," Stepp wrote.

Stepp wrote that he could smell alcohol on Martin as he and Officer Casey Miller approached. Martin had trouble with his balance and his eyes were red and glazed over, the affidavit said.

The officers asked to hold the baby, and the man tried to set her down on a duffel bag, Leingang said. He said the officers stopped the man from setting her down, because she would have fallen and hit her head on the cement.

Miller took the baby from Martin, and Martin was arrested, Stepp wrote.

"Martin was so intoxicated he could hardly stand, let alone care for any children," Stepp wrote. "After he was arrested, he had to be assisted in and out of the patrol unit due to his intoxication level."

Leingang said Martin is the father of the infant girl but is not the father of the 2-year-old boy. The mother of both children, Ruby Ramsey, is in the custody of the Burleigh County Detention Center for failing to pay restitution on a criminal mischief conviction in Bismarck Municipal Court.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)