Jonathan Parr, 37, denied all abuse allegations during his first court appearance Wednesday, declaring he would “die for my kids.”
Parr and his girlfriend, Jacquelyn Coleman, 32, were arrested after nine children — ages 1 to 13 — were rescued Tuesday from a bug-infested Licking County, Ohio, trailer park where investigators say the youngsters endured three years of torture. The children, seven of them Parr’s biological offspring and six of them Coleman’s, were allegedly crammed into cages too small for large dogs, forced to stand for hours with nails between their toes, and made to hold wall-squat positions against their will.
“It was reported that they would sometimes stand there all day,” Jay Cook of the Licking County Sheriff’s Office said. Cook described how the abuse varied between punishment and arbitrary cruelty: “Sometimes it was punishment. Sometimes it was – for no good reason at all – where they would have to stand with their back against the wall, like a wall-squat type situation.”
Four of the children lived with Parr and Coleman in a shed on the property, while the remaining five were housed in a mobile home, according to court documents reviewed by the Columbus Dispatch. The residence also harbored a bug infestation and three dogs who were removed alongside the children.
Parr was taken into custody at the property and charged with child endangerment, including abuse directed at two children who were not biologically his. Coleman, who authorities say knew about the ongoing abuse and allowed it to continue, fled when police arrived and was apprehended during a subsequent traffic stop.
Standing before the court Wednesday, Parr rejected every accusation. “It’s not true,” he said. “I did not keep anyone in cages or any of the other charges. I love my kids. I would die for my kids.”
The conditions discovered by investigators painted a starkly different picture. The cages used to confine the children were explicitly described as inadequate even for big-sized dogs. The combination of insect infestation, improvised housing split between a shed and mobile home, and alleged systematic physical torment led to the children’s removal after what authorities documented as years of sustained mistreatment.
Coleman’s role, as outlined by investigators and reported by WCMH, centered on her alleged awareness and passive facilitation of Parr’s conduct toward the children she shared and those she did not. Her attempt to escape the scene when law enforcement arrived contrasted with Parr’s presence at the property during his arrest.
The case has drawn attention to the Licking County trailer park where the family lived, with the children’s ages spanning from infancy through early adolescence — a range that raises questions about how the alleged abuse escaped earlier detection by neighbors or mandatory reporters. The three-year timeline investigators established suggests the mistreatment began when several of the children were toddlers or preschool-aged.
Both Parr and Coleman are scheduled to return to court Oct. 23.