Former Somerset jail guard sentenced for placing dog shock collar on his children
A Sipesville man will be returning to Somerset County Jail, not as a correctional officer, but as an inmate, for a crime that involved abuse of his children — ages 4, 5, 7, 8 and 12 — with a dog shock collar.
John Wesley Bailey, 35, of Lincoln Township, was sentenced Monday in Somerset County Court of Common Pleas to four months to 23 months in Somerset County Jail, for simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, both misdemeanors, involving his five children in July 2020.
"I'll do whatever I need to do," he told the court at his sentencing.
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The case evolved when the state police conducted an investigation beginning July 30, 2020, into a childline referral regarding child abuse. The referral said that a juvenile victim accused his father of placing a dog shock collar on him that hurt him and caused him to cry, according to trooper Joseph Kozuch in court documents.
In the referral the boy said he told his father to stop, but his father refused to do so and instead chased him around the house to "play a game."
What followed at a Somerset County Child Advocacy Center interview with the juvenile, was the boy saying that his dad was mean to him and his other siblings. He said when his father bullies him and his brother while they are visiting him "his father's actions cause him to feel sad."
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The boy said that his father put his sister's dog shock collar on his neck, arm, leg and feet and when it shocked him "...it hurt a bunch and that when it was on his leg it hurt the worst," according to a probable-cause affidavit.
During other interviews of all the children, they all said they had encountered similar events related to being shocked by the collar, Kozuch wrote.
In response, at first Bailey denied the accusations made by his children, but later recanted his denial and said "he had in fact shocked his kids" five or six times each, according to court documents.
Bailey did not admit to placing a shock collar around his children's neck, but did admit to touching them in various areas of the body with the shock collar, according to his attorney David Leake of Somerset.
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Initially, there was accusations that Bailey also used pepper spray, supposedly brought home from his job as a correctional officer, but there was no pepper spray incident involved in the plea agreement. Bailey denied ever using the item, Leake said.
Leake requested that Bailey receive a probationary sentence with restrictive conditions that involve electronic monitoring.
"He did take responsibility," he told the court at the sentencing. He has "general anxiety disorder. He is absolutely terrified to be here."
Because of the charges "he has lost everything," Leake said. He lost his job and contact with his children, he said.
Bailey was hired as a correctional officer at Somerset County Jail in June 2020. He was separated from employment for that position in August of the same year, according to county records. Charges were filed by state police in September 2020.
"There's already been a substantial amount of punishment," Leake said.
The judge did not follow the defense's suggestion.
"The defendant's actions have caused the victims life-changing emotional trauma," said President Judge D. Gregory Geary. The sentence included a domestic violence enhancement, he said.
The judge ordered Bailey pay the costs of prosecution and supervision, $600 in fines. He must undergo DNA testing.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Sipesville man gets 4-23 months for shocking kids with a dog collar
