Two Florida police officers are in hot water after they allegedly put their 3-year-old son in jail for several days while potty training them. Sgt. Jessica Long and Lt. Michael Schoenbrod of the Daytona Beach Shores Police Department are said to have put the toddler in a cell once on October 5, 2022, and then again the next day as punishment for wetting himself, according to Law & Crime.
The couple was later interviewed by a state child abuse investigator for an hour, with the footage being publicly released this week. The bodycam video shows Long denying having done anything wrong and instead claiming “it’s just people getting it twisted.” She then called the investigation into her and her husband’s behavior “the definition of insanity.”
As for Schoenbrod, he believed he was justified in putting the 3-year-old behind bars because his daycare requires kids his age not to use diapers. However, the boy was unsuccessful in being fully potty trained, so they had to put him in jail to teach the toddler a lesson.
Meet Sgt. Jessica Long and Lt. Michael Schoenbrod: Both are under investigation for arresting 3 and 4 Year Old Children…One of which, Brags about how the 4 year Old Cried after being placed in handcuffs. The other one arrested a 3 year old for simply: not using the potty chair. https://t.co/7o51EQ9pUQ pic.twitter.com/ff9IgZv4ls
— Stephanie Dews 🇺🇲 🇺🇲 (@stephanie_dews) June 30, 2023
“I said you know what I do for a living. I said I’m a cop. I take bad boys to the jail that don’t follow the law. So that’s what I did,” Shoenbrod shared. “I said you know you aren’t following the rules, let’s go to jail.”
Schoenbrod said that while the cell was admittedly “nasty,” he did check to make sure there was nothing dangerous in there before locking his son in for about 13 minutes. “Had eyes on him the entire time. He was crying. I was getting the response I expected from him,” the dad said, adding that his wife had pulled the same tactic for about three minutes the day before.
Schoenbrod went on to say that their tactic worked and the toddler promised not to wet himself again. The lieutenant even admitted to doing the same thing years ago with their older son, locking him in nine years ago after he hit a girl at preschool.
The investigation is still ongoing, though both Jessica Long and Michael Schoenbrod are continuing to work as normal.
