by Jo Ellen Nott

On October 24, 2022, a now-fired guard at Pennsylvania’s Somerset County Jail (SCJ) was sentenced for abusing his five children with a dog shock collar. John Wesley Bailey, 35, will spend four to twenty-three months on the other side of the bars at the jail where he used to work, after pleading guilty in July 2022 to one count each of recklessly endangering another person and simple assault.

Bailey began working as a guard at SCJ in June 2020. The abuse case started the following month, when state police received a referral from ChildLine regarding suspected abuse. Trooper Joseph Kozuch investigated and reported that the juvenile victim accused his father of placing a dog shock collar on him and turning it “up to 100,” bringing the child to tears.

Bailey’s son also said in the referral that he asked his father to stop but that Bailey refused to do so, subsequently chasing the child around the house under the guise of playing a game. When the Somerset County Child Advocacy Center interviewed the boy, he reported that his father was mean to him and his siblings. He said his father bullied him and his brother during visits and that “his father’s actions caused him to feel sad.”

A probable-cause affidavit described Bailey’s behavior in detail: The child said “his father put [the] 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.” The other children reported similar behavior to Kozuch.

Bailey denied the accusations at first, but he later recanted his denial and confessed to shocking his children five or six times each, according to court documents. Bailey’s lawyer, David Leake, stressed that his client did not admit placing the shock collar around their necks, instead touching several points of each child’s body with the shock collar. 

Bailey was separated from his employment in August 2020. Rather than leaving him in SCJ as a prisoner now, Leake requested a probationary sentence for his client with restrictive conditions involving electronic monitoring. President Judge D. Gregory Geary did not follow those suggestions, however. In addition to the jail term, he ordered Bailey to pay the costs of prosecution and supervision and $600 in fines. He must also undergo DNA testing.

Sources:  Daily American, WTAJ 

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