Mich. man who used 2-year-old daughter as shield to cop’s Taser gets jail, parenting classes

Mich. dad who used 2-year-old as shield gets jail

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — A Michigan judge 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.

Cox was accused in March of breaking into his ex-wife’s home in Warren, 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 seeking comment from Cox’s attorney.