Cody Scott, 33, and his wife Kylie Scott, from Indiana, have both been charged with two counts of felony child neglect after a passerby saw the little girl standing in the snow with the sign and called 911 on January 19.
The concerned passerby’s call was answered by Scott, as the onlooker told him: “This baby is standing out here in the freezing cold with a sign,” according to court records obtained by WTHR.
The Logansport cop then allegedly admitted to having handed out the punishment, responding: “Yup, she comes out here every 30 minutes, and she goes back inside every 10 minutes to warm back up.”
While the pair were speaking, an “older man” reportedly walked up and questioned why the child’s father was forcing her to stand outside with the shocking and humiliating sign, according to court records.
The documents state that Scott allegedly replied: “Well sir, aside from me cruelly beating her physically, I’ve not done any other punishment that has 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.”
Scott also claimed that his daughter had been taken to hospital on two occasions for reasons not disclosed in the court records, but was “kicked out”, claiming he’d threatened not to pick her up but relented after staff warned him that “they would call DCS on me for abandonment.”
Scott’s wife allegedly told investigators that their daughter had been made to hold up the sign as punishment for “pouting” when her parents forbade her from wearing lipgloss.
She had previously allegedly been made to carry a sign to Walmart that read: “I lie to hurt other people.”
According to the Scotts, the six-year-old allegedly suffers from behavioral issues and several diagnoses that require medication, which an investigator said in their report that they disclosed in an attempt to defend their actions.
Following the incident on January 19, Scott was put on leave from his job “within hours”, according to the police.
He was officially put on leave without pay on March 12 after a hearing with the Logansport Board of Public Works.
