Indiana Cop Forces 6-Year-Old Daughter to Hold Troubling Sign In Freezing Weather as Punishment, Leading to Charges

An Indiana police officer faces criminal charges and could lose his job after forcing his 6-year-old daughter to stand alongside a road in 18-degree weather earlier this year holding up a confessional sign alleging she wanted to stab and kill her brother.

The sign continued, “I even take an antipsychotic. If you need to give pity, then give it to the victims.” A woman called 911, and the father, Logansport, Indiana police Officer Cody Scott, arrived on the scene with his supervisor, according to WTHR.

Body camera footage showed the caller saying to the officer, “This baby is standing out here in the freezing cold with a sign.”

The caller, Rebecca Gibbs, later told Fox 59 she was sickened and disgusted by the spectacle.

“That’s what it was that somebody could do that to a child and to know that that’s a police officer who did that to a child, that’s even worse. It was horrible,” Gibbs said. “I wouldn’t let my dog sit outside for an hour, let alone my child.”

Scott explained to Gibbs that the girl goes inside every 10 minutes to warm up, according to court documents. On Jan. 19, the date of the incident, 19 mph winds accompanied the below-freezing temperature.

An older man pulled up and expressed concern for the girl, asking the officer why he had his daughter “stand out here like this”?

 “Do you want the short version or the long version?” the officer asked, according to his body camera’s recording. 

“Probably the short version is probably best,” the man said. 

“Well, sir, aside from me cruelly beating her physically,” Scott replied, “I’ve not done any other punishment that has worked for her. She’s threatened to kill my family, she wants to embarrass us, she wants to urinate on herself and destroy things in the house.”

He said his daughter has been in therapy for three years.

He also claimed he had taken the girl to a hospital in Terre Haute twice, for unspecified reasons, and claimed she had been “kicked out.”

“I threatened to not pick her up,” Scott told the passersby. “They said they would call DCS (Department of Children Services) on me for abandonment.” 

An Indiana State Police officer handling the case contacted the Howard County DCS and learned this wasn’t the first time the little girl was forced to hold an embarrassing sign in public.

A case worker told the officer that the girl was made to carry a sign to school that read, “I pee on everything and cover it up like a cat.” The school also reported the girl had to hold a sign outside a local Walmart that read, “I lie to hurt other people.”

Police interviewed the parents, who said their daughter has behavioral disorders and listed the diagnosis and medications, according to court documents. The mother, Kylie Scott, said she forced the girl to hold the sign on Jan. 19 because of an incident involving lip gloss.

The girl had been told she could put on lip gloss for church, but she forgot and allegedly pouted about it at Sunday school, the mother said, adding she often acted out to get attention.

The parents told investigators that other forms of punishment were ineffective. They said the girl has broken her toys and urinated on herself in order to get attention. She had also allegedly threatened to hurt her little brother by cutting him or shooting him.

Asked about the girl urinating on herself, the mother said it happened approximately five times, while the father estimated it was “approximately 50 times,” according to court documents.

The couple said they’d sought outside guidance.

The little girl was also interviewed. She said she had been grounded many times for bad behavior and was ordered to stay in her room. When she asked to use the bathroom, she was told to wait. Her brother, she said, was never punished like that.

The Indiana State Police investigator wrote that he suspected forcing the girl to wait was what caused her to urinate on herself. He also believed the parents had coached the girl ahead of her interview.

And while he said the parents seemed to think their creative punishments would be excused because of their daughter’s disorders, the investigator believed it only made their conduct worse.

In an affidavit recommending criminal charges for the parents, the officer wrote, “The affiant finds this form of discipline to be disproportionate to the offense and unnecessarily degrading.”

Prosecutors agreed and charged the parents with two felony counts of neglect of a dependent. The two bonded out and are scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 22, Fox 59 reports.

On Wednesday, the Logansport Board of Public Works and Safety Committee voted unanimously to place the Cody Scott on unpaid administrative leave.