Cop forced young daughter to hold violent sign in freezing weather, Indiana police say
.png "A 6-year-old girl in Indiana was forced to stand outside holding a sign saying, “I want to stab and kill my brother,” police said.")
An Indiana police officer was placed on leave after officials said he made his 6-year-old daughter stand outside in freezing temperatures holding a sign with a violent message on it.
McClatchy News is not naming the officer to protect the identity of the girl.
At a March 12 Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, the officer, who works for the Logansport Police Department, was placed on unpaid leave.
McClatchy News reached out to the Logansport Police Department but did not immediately hear back. However, Police Chief Travis Yike told WRTV in an email that the “Logansport Police Department does not have a comment on the situation involving (the officer).”
This comes after he and his wife were charged with neglect of a dependent, according to court records.
On Jan. 19, a woman called 911 after seeing a young girl standing outside in 18-degree weather holding a sign that said, “I want to stab and kill my brother - I even take an antipsychotic - If you need to give pity - then give it to the victims,” WTHR reported.
The officer arrived at the scene with his supervisor and told the woman that the girl comes outside every 30 minutes and goes back inside every 10 minutes, the news outlet reported, citing court documents.
A passerby asked the officer why the girl was standing outside in the cold. He responded by saying, “Well, sir, aside from me cruelly beating her physically. I’ve not done any other punishment that’s worked for her. She’s threatened to kill my family, she wants to embarrass us, she wants to urinate on herself and destroy things in the house. I have a (Department of Child Services) caseworker involved, she’s been in therapy for three years, she also has the wrap around program at school,” WXIN reported, citing an affidavit.
A Howard County case worker told investigators this wasn’t the first incident involving the girl holding a sign, according to WTHR. On one occasion, the girl’s school reported that her parents made her take a sign to school that said “I pee on everything and cover it up like a cat,” the outlet reported.
The officer said he and his wife have tried alternative methods of punishment for the girl, who he says has mental disorders, but none of them work, WXIN reported, citing investigators.
“The affiant finds this form of discipline to be disproportionate to the offense and unnecessarily degrading,” an investigator wrote in court records, the outlet reported.
Logansport is about a 75-mile drive southwest of Fort Wayne.
