Nine children have been removed from a bug-infested Ohio property after authorities alleged their father confined some of them in small dog cages and subjected them to hours of punishment while their mother watched.
The children, ranging in age from 1 to 13, allegedly endured abuse for three years at a Licking County trailer park. Investigators said Jonathan Parr, 37, and Jacquelyn Coleman, 32, forced them to live in “deplorable living conditions.”
The children and three dogs were rescued from the property Tuesday, according to court documents reviewed by the Columbus Dispatch. Authorities described the home as having a serious “bug infestation,” while some of the children were reportedly living in a shed.
Investigators said the children were “forced to stand for hours with nails between their toes” and were confined behind cages or other barriers. The cages, authorities emphasized, were not designed for “big-sized dogs.”
“Sometimes it was punishment. Sometimes it was – for no good reason at all – where they would have to stand with their back against the wall, like a wall-squat type situation,” Jay Cook of the Licking County Sheriff’s Office said.
“It was reported that they would sometimes stand there all day.”
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Four of the children lived with Parr and Coleman in a shed, while the others stayed in a mobile home on the Licking County property.
Parr, the biological father of seven of the children, was charged with child endangerment and accused of abusing two children who are not biologically related to him. He was arrested at the property.
Coleman, 32, is the biological mother of six of the children. She allegedly knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue, WCMH reported.
Authorities said she fled when police arrived and was later arrested during a traffic stop.
Parr has strongly denied abusing the children.
“It’s not true,” he said during his court appearance Wednesday. “I did not keep anyone in cages or any of the other charges. I love my kids. I would die for my kids.”
Coleman and Parr are scheduled to return to court on Oct. 23.
