BRIGHTON, Colo.-
A 62-year-old grandma was sentenced to three years imprisonment Friday for locking her grandson inside a dog kennel every night for three years while she went to work as a jail counselor.
June Candelario, who also had served as a State Trooper, will serve three years in prison, and one on parole. She put the boy in a 4-foot by 3-foot kennel each night at 4 p.m. and let him out hours later when she returned from work, authorities said.
“I can not imagine any society that would say it is just and fair to inflict this harm on a child that cannot protect himself,” said Adams County District Court Judge Harlan Bockman.
Under a plea bargain, most of the charges against her were dropped. She pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit child abuse that resulted in bodily harm and a misdemeanor account of child abuse.
The boy, who has not been publicly identified, was 10 when the abuse began and 13 when Candelario was arrested last May.
“I felt like I was in a prison in my home,” said a letter from the boy, which was read in court. “When I was in the cage, I felt scared and lonely and that I was not loved by my grandma.”
The boy’s foster mother said the boy refused to attend sentencing because he remains afraid of Candelario.
