Posted on 05/27/2006 6:21:09 AM PDT by Libloather
Grandmother Accused Of Keeping Boy In Dog Kennel
Candelario Works As Detention Counselor For Jefferson County
UPDATED: 7:44 pm MDT May 26, 2006
COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- A detention center counselor remains in jail on $100,000 bond after she was arrested Thursday night for allegedly locking her 13-year-old grandson in a dog kennel while she's at work, Commerce City police said.
June Candelario, 61, faces charges of second-degree kidnapping, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and child abuse. Commerce City police were alerted to the case when they were called to a home in the 68th Avenue and Ash Street on a report of a child abuse.
During their investigation, officers learned that Candelario may have been keeping her grandson in a 46-by-30-by-35-inch dog kennel, in the bedroom when she was at work. Police said this may have been going on for the past three years.
Police said the boy told his friend about what was happening, the friend told his mother and the mother reported it to police.
Candelario works as a counselor for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and works Monday to Thursday from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Investigators believe she would lock the boy in the kennel just prior to leaving for work and would then open the kennel when she got home around 3 a.m.
"My understanding is that ... he was doing his homework from inside the cage," said Commerce City police Lt. Chuck Saunier. "I don't know if there was any food or water available."
Some neighbors who talked to 7NEWS seem shocked by the allegations. They say the boy is smart, attends a nearby middle school and from what they know, appears to have a good relationship with his grandmother. They also don't understand how a 13-year-old boy would let himself be caged in a kennel every night.
"I see the kid running back from school, but I never see him out. I thought that was kinda strange because I have kids too, and my kids know him... But he's always running. It's like he has a deadline or something," said neighbor Christy Wahl.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has suspended Candelario with pay until the investigation is complete. Candelario is also a former trooper with the Colorado State Patrol, 7NEWS reported.
The boy is in protective custody and is said to be doing fine.
Well geeze, if she tied him out in the yard he barked all day.
Seriously, there isn't a kennel in the world that would have held me for long. (even at 13 years old)
Words fail me.
"Good grief, Charlie Brown!"
One wonder's what kind of counseling advice she gave.
Evidently she believed it when someone told her that little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dogs tails.
There will come more to this story; including the grandmother's rationale behind this abuse. Where were the boy's parents in all this? Or are we better off not knowing?
"If I done this to your mother fourteen years ago, I wouldn't stuck looking after you today."
Well, nowdays, grandmas do have to work and kids do lie. I really hope she wasn't doing this.
How else is he going to get the Milkbone out of the Kong toy?
There are many fine social workers out there, helping people every day.
But I've never met one of them. Every social worker I've ever met has had major personal problems of one sort or another.
A lot of shrinks are the same way.
Ditto.
However, I can see a 13 year old lying to his friends. Has the grandmother denied or admitted it?
Hi, let me introduce myself. I'll withhold my evaluation of your major personal problems until I learn more.
Psychiatry has the highest suicide rate in the medical professions.
"Well, out here, pilgrim, a man learns to solve his own problems!"
As for the kid, all I can say is
Woof!
Look who's minding the store.
You're a social worker who doesn't have major problems?!
Have you read some of the stuff you post??
Hehe, just couldn't resist.
Errr, ummm, ok, you do have a point.
Speaking as the mother of teenagers, there have been many times when I've seriously considered duct-taping their mouths shut!
"Touch my monkey, TOUCH HIM!!!! Feel him... love him..."
Lock the grandmother in a cage.
That's sick!
I guess this grandmother and kid went to the dogs!
That said, something very odd about the whole story.
"But I've never met one of them."
Well, it's too bad you could never have met my dad. He was a social worker and a truly fine man. Somehow he dealt with all the BS and worse he encountered on that job. He was once in the newspaper for naming some poor baby that was found in the trash, alive thank goodness. He was a very faithful man, so I think that's what helped him do that job.
Me, if I had that job I probably wouldn't last a week. I'd be arrested for strangling some miscreant.
My friend is a psychiatrist...she's Russian and she found her mother hanging from a rope when she was 13. She is SO MESSED UP.
Wondering how a 61 year old woman could force a 13 year old boy into a dog kennel? She must be very strong or he is very weak.
"Wondering how a 61 year old woman could force a 13 year old boy into a dog kennel?"
My guess: she convinced him that he had to obey her. After that he cooperated and adjusted. It was people he told that could not go along with it. Otherwise, they had a stable, workable arrangement that allowed her to generate an income that benifitted both of them. Most caretakers would have arrived at a system where the kid would be left alone and he would stay out of trouble. Maybe they had already tried that and it didn't work.
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