Florida police officer jailed toddler son to potty train him

WASHINGTON: A Florida police officer admitted in an interview to locking his young child in a jail cell to potty train him.

Two incidents occurred on two separate days last fall but are just now coming to light, United Press International (UPI) citing reports by Daytona Beach News-Journal said Wednesday.

"He [child] was crying. I was getting the response I expected from him," Daytona Beach Shores Department of Public Safety Lt. Michael Schoenbrod told a caseworker with the Department of Children and Families.

Schoenbrod brought the child to the department's headquarters and took his son to one of the jail cells.

The interview appears on body-cam footage from a Volusia County Sheriff's Office deputy.

Schoenbrod co-parents the child with Sgt. Jessica Long, a fellow department member, according to the report.

The incidents sparked a professional standards investigation, but Public Safety Director Michael Fowler told the newspaper he was unable to comment on the status of the probe or whether or not it extended to Long.

The News-Journal became aware of the incidents after reviewing two lawsuits filed by Schoenbrod in Florida's 7th Judicial Circuit, according to UPI.

Court records in both cases are sealed by a judge. The defendant in one is listed as state attorney R.J. Larizza.

In the interview, Schoenbrod admitted locking his son up and that the 3-year-old promised not to soil his pants again.

The officer told the case worker that in the other incident, he jailed his son after the child admitted hitting a girl.

"I took him to the jail and he sat there. And I watched him...and he was crying and everything, and to this day, if you mention that incident, he's just like, 'I would never do that again.' It was effective. So that's why I did it with this. He didn't hit anybody, but I figured the same thing, discipline," Schoenbrod said during the interview.

-- BERNAMA