VENTURA – This Thornton woman was nabbed for drunk driving and child endangerment for allegedly picking her kid up from a Ventura school while intoxicated.
Clear Lake police tell NIT that on November 25, 2025, at 3:43 PM, Clear Lake police were called to Clear Lake Classical School’s Ventura Campus in Ventura, Iowa, for a report of a possibly intoxicated person picking up a child from the school. When officers arrived in the area, 45-year-old Alisa Torkelson of Thornton, Iowa, was found driving with her child away from the school.
After contacting Torkelson and further investigation, officers determined Torkelson to be impaired by alcohol. Torkelson was charged with:
- CHILD ENDANGERMENT – AGGRAVATED MISDEMEANOR
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OPERATING WHILE UNDER THE INFLUENCE 1ST OFFENSE – SERIOUS MISDEMEANOR
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CHILD ENDANGERMENT – SERIOUS INJURY – CLASS C FELONY (this charge is listed in online records, but CLPD tell NIT, “There was no injury involved. The original charge had the wrong code subsection and is being remedied. The correct Child Endangerment is the lower level offense.”)
No further details of the incident were elaborated upon by police.
Torkelson (pictured at top) was booked into the Cerro Gordo county jail at 5:36 PM that day and posted bond on December 1. She now awaits a December 5 hearing in court.