RED WING, Minn. — A Red Wing couple accused of caging and repeatedly physically and emotionally abusing their four young children have pleaded guilty to one of 16 counts against them.
Benjamin Taylor Cotton, 41, and Christina Ann Cotton, 38, each entered a guilty plea for one count of child torture, according to Goodhue County District Court documents filed Wednesday. The couple could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison as a result of a plea agreement setting aside the other charges.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 13.
Goodhue County Health and Human Services began investigating the couple following a 2022 report that they were keeping a 5-year-old locked up in a wooden “cage” and subjecting the child to extreme forms of punishment, along with three other children in the home, ages 9, 7 and 2. The report stated the mother suffered from mental health issues.
A social worker and a Red Wing Police Department investigator found three of the children locked in various homemade cages during an Aug. 18, 2022, inspection of the couple’s Red Wing home.
The mother, Christina Cotton, told the investigators the children were locked up for their own safety.
Inside one of the home’s bedrooms, investigators found the 2-year-old inside a playpen with a “dog gate” tied to the top, making it impossible for the child to get out, the complaint said.
Next to the playpen, the 7-year-old and 5-year-old were found in a bunk bed designed for small children that was converted into a cage by the placement of a wooden door and slats that the children could look through but not get out, court documents allege. The door also had a sliding metal lock. The height of the cage did not allow either child to fully stand up.
The 9-year-old was found in the home’s basement and was not caged or confined.
Investigators found a “puke bowl” in one of the cages and it was discovered that the children were not allowed to go to the bathroom once they were put to bed in the cages.
After a police officer told the mother that it was not acceptable to lock her children up, she said she did it to prevent them dying. She added the children were only locked up at night and they were still in their cages because she had slept in. The children had been kept in their cages for 13 hours that day.
Further investigation found the 2-year-old had a soiled diaper that was duct-taped to the child’s skin, and the other children were found to have extensive bruising on their bodies that appeared consistent with being struck by an object.
One of the children told a social worker that he was spanked with a black belt if he does not do his chores, according to court documents.
“He stated that his dad hits him ‘hard’ but that his mom ‘hits him really, really hard,’” the criminal complaint reads.
Additional investigation found pictures that showed extensive bruising of the 9-year-old that the child had taken with a cellphone the day before the home inspection.
All four children were evaluated by medical staff at the Midwest Children’s Resource Center at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul.
A licensed psychologist determined that the mistreatment went well beyond what is typically viewed as physical and emotional abuse and could fit into a category of abuse called “intrafamilial child torture.”
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