Mom gets 4 years for putting son in cage

The boy, 10, also was
sometimes made to wear an electronic collar used in dog training.

TOLEDO (AP) — A mother convicted of punishing her son by forcing him to sit in a dog cage was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday.

Jessica Botzko, 28, apologized before the sentencing, saying that her time spent in jail the past six months “has really opened my eyes to the pain I was causing my children.”

She fought back tears as she told the judge that she was not a monster.

“I’m not a criminal,” she said. “Just a mother who loves her boys.”

Botzko pleaded no contest last month to child endangering.

She and her boyfriend, John Westover, 37, were jailed after their 10-year-old son escaped their Toledo home when he grabbed his 5-year-old brother and ran away while his father was out and his mother was dancing at a strip club. He told officers that he was tired of being put in a dog cage, police said.

The oldest boy, at times, had to wear a remote-controlled shock collar and was repeatedly zapped by the device meant to train animals, police said.

The boy told officers that he also was caged when his father was using or making drugs, police said.

Lucas County Judge Linda Jennings said it was “inconceivable that a mother could do this.”

The two boys had suffered serious physical and emotional harm, Jennings said.

The judge denied Botzko’s plea for probation and sentenced her to just less than the maximum five-year sentence. Jennings did give Botzko credit for the six months she already has spent in jail.

Westover has pleaded not guilty to child-endangering charges and is awaiting trial later this month.

Officers found a collapsible cage and the shock collar in the couple’s mobile home. The cage, less than 2 feet tall and wide, had a chain across the top with two locks on each end, police said.

Authorities said the older boy, found with his brother a few blocks from their home on a neighbor’s porch, weighed only 61 pounds, appeared thin for his age and told officers he had not eaten in a couple of days.

Police said their home was filled with dirty clothes, garbage and empty boxes.

Neighbors said they never saw the boys playing outside or walking to school. Some had no idea the boys lived in the trailer home with their parents.

They have been turned over to Lucas County Children Services and were placed with another family.

Another Ohio couple, Michael and Sharen Gravelle of Norwalk, were convicted in December of child abuse and endangerment for keeping some of their 11 special-needs adopted children in wire and wood enclosures.