Parents who treat their children like prisoners or animals

Couple accused of caging son, 10
Toledo neighbors say they never saw boy or his brother
Seewer, John. Columbus Dispatch.

TOLEDO - No one ever saw the 10-year-old boy or his younger brother playing outside in their mobile home park.

They never left for school. They never talked to anyone. Some neighbors had no idea the boys lived in the red-andwhite trailer with their parents.

"I didn't even know they had kids," said Mike Solo who lived across the street.

The parents appeared briefly in court yesterday, accused of forcing the oldest boy to sit in a dog cage no taller than a kitchen wastebasket.

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

"It's beyond any normal person's realm of reality," police Capt. Ray Carroll said.

The boy escaped the home when he grabbed his 5-year-old brother and ran away while his dad was out and his mom was dancing at a strip club. The boy told officers he was tired of being put in the cage that was less than 2 feet tall and wide, police said.

"He had to tuck his knees into his chest, and he fell asleep in there on a couple occasions," Carroll said. "It wasn't continuous. It was probably on and off for punishment."

Jessica Botzko, 28, and John Westover, 37, told police that they put the boy in the cage to punish him, Carroll said.

They were arrested Wednesday and charged with child endangerment and making or selling drugs in front of the children.

It was unclear whether the younger boy had been put in the cage, Carroll said. Police plan to interview the boys again in the next few days. The boys are in the custody of Children Services.

The 10-year-old, who weighed only 61 pounds, told officers that his father also put him in the cage when he was using or making drugs, Carroll said.

The boys ran away from home Tuesday night and were found a few blocks away on a neighbor?s porch. "They didn't want to be there when their dad got home," Carroll said.

Neighbors said they often heard the couple fighting in their home. Some saw the father and his friends fixing cars in the yard. But the boys were never around.

Police searched the home and found it filled with dirty clothes, garbage and empty boxes, Carroll said. They also seized the collapsible cage and the animal collar. Humane officers took away a cat.

Sheets and curtains pulled tight covered the trailer?s windows. Outside the front door, there was a propane grill and dry cat food spread onto a concrete slab.

Neighbor Catherine Hightower said she saw the oldest boy a few times when he was taking out garbage. "I'm just finding out they had more than the one boy," she said.

The couple's hearings were continued because neither had a lawyer and the parents remained in jail. A message seeking comment was left for them at the jail.

Westover has an extensive record and was wanted on a child-endangering charge in suburban Toledo, authorities said.

Botzko's oldest son was removed from the home in 1998 when she was charged with child endangering.

The couple had a daughter who died of sudden infant death syndrome a few years ago, Carroll said. Police plan to take another look at her death.

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