Jailtime For Dad Who Used Daughter As Shield
A judge in Mount Clemens has sentenced a father to a year in jail and parenting classes after he used his 2-year-old daughter as a shield during a confrontation with a Taser-wielding police officer.
The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press report that 27-year-old Joseph Cox of Belleville also was ordered Thursday in Macomb Circuit Court to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Cox had pleaded no contest to misdemeanor child abuse, and guilty to home invasion and obstructing an officer.
He was accused in March of breaking into his ex-wife's Warren home, just north of Detroit. The child was held in front of a Taser pointed at Cox by an officer.
The officer didn't fire.
The Associated Press left a message Thursday afternoon seeking comment from Cox's attorney.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
