VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement found “probable cause” earlier this year to charge two high-ranking Daytona Beach Shores officers with aggravated child abuse, after those officers last October brought their three-year-old to a jail cell as punishment for not being potty-trained, according to a copy of the FDLE’s investigative report. 

But despite that FDLE report, the State Attorney’s Office did not pursue charges against either Lt. Michael Schoenbrod or Sgt. Jessica Long, according to a Feb. 7 letter the office provided to Spectrum News 13 on Monday. Schoenbrod leads the patrol division within Daytona Beach Shores’ public safety department, and Long heads up the criminal investigations division, according to the city’s website.

“Evidence shows there is no physical or mental injury to the child. As such, no further action is warranted by this office,” the state attorney’s letter states. “The case has been returned to (Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety) for administrative review and action.”

The city of Daytona Beach Shores placed Schoenbrod on administrative leave earlier this month while it conducted an internal investigation, according to a city memo. The city confirmed to Spectrum News 13 on July 19 that Long was not currently on leave or under investigation. 

But the city did previously investigate both Long and Schoenbrod in regards to the jail cell incidents in October, according to investigative documents Spectrum News 13 received Monday from the state attorney’s office and Daytona Beach Shores. 

Following the city’s investigations, both officers were suspended for 40 hours sometime after April 1 for violating department policy, according to a March memo the city released late Monday.

“Your decision to bring this personal and private matter to the public safety facility has … initiated significant scrutiny, both internally and publicly,” reads the memo written by public safety director Michael Fowler. “Your actions have undoubtedly led to an erosion of the public’s trust in yourself and our agency.”

The officers violated an internal policy forbidding employees from engaging in conduct that could “destroy public respect for the employee and/or the department,” according to Fowler’s memo. 

But the memo also stated the officers did not violate the other policy referenced in the investigation: a policy prohibiting employees from committing a felony.

Aggravated child abuse is a first-degree felony under Florida statute, defined as when a person “knowingly or willfully tortures, maliciously punishes, or willfully and unlawfully cages a child.” That’s the language FDLE used in the conclusion of its investigative summary, which states there is “probable cause” to charge both officers with aggravated child abuse. 

FDLE’s investigative summary, notarized Jan. 11, was included in a batch of files the state attorney’s office provided to Spectrum News 13 Monday — exactly one week after a Volusia County judge declined to seal a court case involving the DBS officers. 

FDLE states its “comprehensive investigation” was based in part on the agency’s review of video surveillance footage and content found on a department-issued cell phone, as well as interviews with several law enforcement officers — including one officer who is the only direct witness to the officers’ attempts to discipline their child by bringing him into a jail cell. FDLE interviewed Long and Schoenbrod as well. 

Long brought the child into the jail cell first, on Oct. 5; then, the following day, Schoenbrod brought the child back — in handcuffs — according to FDLE’s report. Each time, the child’s parent secured the cell with the child inside, and briefly stepped out of the child’s view, according to the report.

“A (Daytona Beach Shores Public Safety) holding cell is a concrete and glass confinement cell used to detain an adult, a person over 18 years in temporary custody,” FDLE’s investigative report reads. 

An attorney representing the city of Daytona Beach Shores on Monday provided Spectrum News 13 with a transcript and summary of an interview with Sgt. Bill Phillips, the only known direct witness to the jail cell incidents. Phillips reported seeing Schoenbrod’s child sitting inside the jail cell on Oct. 6, as Schoenbrod stood outside, looking into the cell. 

“Sergeant Phillips advised this was not the first instance he knew of a child being placed in the cell under non-custodial conditions,” reads the interview summary. “He advised while giving tours to Longstreet Elementary he knew that children had been placed in the cells during those times.”

However, according to the city’s interview transcript, Phillips said that only occurred if he were giving tours of the facility. 

Phillips also made a distinction between children “voluntarily or involuntarily” being placed in a jail cell, according to the interview transcript. Sometimes, during tours, “they’ve wanted to sit in the jail cell,” Phillips said. 

But Phillips said he’d never actually closed the door to a jail cell while a child was sitting inside it.

“No, because, in my belief, it would be traumatizing,” Phillips told the interviewer. 

When asked whether or not the child appeared to be in danger, Phillips drew another distinction: between physical and emotional danger.

“You keep emphasizing physical,” the interviewer asked, according to the transcript. “Was he in any other kind of danger, other than physical?”

“Well, again, in my personal opinion, that’s … People parent in all kinds of ways,” Phillips said. “I wouldn’t put my child in there.”

The interviewer asked why not.

“Because it’s emotionally traumatizing to children,” Phillips said.

The interviewer — a fellow law enforcement officer with Daytona Beach Shores — asked Phillips what that statement was based on, pressing him on whether or not he is a trained mental health professional. 

Phillips said no, confirming his statement was based on his own experience as a parent, having raised two sons who are now fully grown.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Phillips said. “I believe it’s traumatizing for children.”

According to FDLE’s analysis of surveillance video, both Long and Schoenbrod closed the jail cell’s door after placing their 3-year-old son inside.

During an interview with the city, Schoenbrod also referenced the Longstreet Elementary tours, according to the city’s summary of his internal investigation launched last October. Schoenbrod explained how students touring the police station have previously sat inside jail cells as part of the tour.

“He advised no one has been traumatized as a result of this,” states the city’s investigative summary.

According to both FDLE’s and the city’s reports, FDLE obtained a search warrant for Long’s department-issued cell phone, which revealed Schoenbrod texted Long several pictures and a video of their child on Oct. 6, the day he brought the child to the cell in handcuffs.

The first picture was of an upset child, sitting “in the backseat of a vehicle (not a child seat) arms extended in front of him handcuffed,” according to FDLE. The next two pictures and the video Schoenbrod sent to Long showed their child inside the cell, handcuffed and visibly upset. 

Long replied to Schoenbrod with a text: “Oh my goodness. This is crazy we’re going to this length,” according to FDLE’s report.

Spectrum News 13 has requested surveillance video footage of the October jail cell incidents, which the state attorney’s office reports are still in the process of redacting.