A Texas veterinarian embroiled in a custody fight with the family of the Lee, Maine, man she is accused of murdering was free on $25,000 bail Monday after being charged with endangering her other son to go partying.

The latest charges against Wendi Mae Davidson, 28, of San Angelo, began shortly after midnight Sunday when police found her 4-year-old son, Tristan Davidson, riding a yellow 4-wheeler outside Buffalo Wild Wings, a restaurant across the street from Davidson’s residence and clinic. The restaurant was the last place his stepfather, Lee native Michael Leslie Severance, was seen alive about 18 months ago.

The boy circled the building crying and told witnesses he didn’t know where his mother was, a police report states. To get there, Tristan crossed the five lanes of Sherwood Way, one of the city’s most commercialized avenues, to a large parking lot about 60 percent full, police said.

“He had the potential of having a very real problem crossing there,” said Lt. Curtis Milbourn, San Angelo police spokesman, during a telephone interview Monday.

Witnesses alerted restaurant workers and police because they knew it was late and feared the child might be hit by traffic. Sherwood Way had moderate traffic at the time, a police report on the incident states.

Davidson told police that she went to a nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter for 15 minutes, the report states. She admitted being at a San Angelo hot spot, Graham Central Station, after they told her an officer had seen her hurriedly leaving Graham Central shortly after officers called to tell her about Tristan, police said.

“Wendi stated she had made a bad choice and that it would never happen again,” according to the report arresting Officer Barry D. Radcliffe wrote.

Investigators believe the child got out of the clinic through the east side of the residence, which was unlocked, the report states.

Davidson was charged early Sunday with abandoning-endangering a child with intent to return and made bail about 12 hours later, according to Tom Green County Jail records.

Police took video records and turned Tristan over to the his grandfather, Lloyd Davidson, the report states.

Tristan is the half brother of Michael Severance’s son, Shane Michael Severance, who is the subject of an ongoing civil court custody battle. Tristan’s father has never been publicly identified.

Shane Severance’s grandfather, Les Severance of Lee, has sued for custody of the baby from Davidson’s parents, Judi and Lloyd Davidson, and has been awarded temporary joint custody with the elder Davidsons.

Thomas Goff, the Severances’ San Angelo attorney, would not comment Monday on whether the latest arrest would have any bearing upon the custody case. Les Severance could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The custody case will resume in early 2007 if the murder trial goes forward in October, Goff has said. The murder trial has been delayed several times.

Police accused Davidson, 28, of using drugs that normally euthanize animals to poison her husband, Michael Leslie Severance, 24, and of stabbing his body 41 times before dumping him in a San Angelo pond owned by a family friend, landowner Terrell Sheen, on Jan. 15, 2005.

Davidson was arrested March 5, 2005, and a grand jury later indicted her on two charges of tampering with evidence and a single count of murder.

Severance, an Air Force staff sergeant who grew up in Lee, was stationed at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, at the time of his death, and lived in San Angelo with his wife at her veterinary clinic.

Davidson is free on bond, has pleaded innocent to the charges and an attorney representing her in the criminal proceedings has said she passed a lie detector test during which she said she did not kill her husband and did not know who did.

She did, however, admit to dumping the body, saying she came home early Jan. 15, and found Severance dead and feared that someone else in her family had committed the crime. Witnesses had placed the two at Buffalo Wild Wings late the night of Jan. 14, police have said.