A Michigan couple abused their adopted children by locking them in dog cages and forcing them to wear makeshift straitjackets to restrict their movement.
Jason Klimp, 47, and Jessica Klimp, 45, both pleaded no contest to the first-degree child abuse of two of the four children they have adopted and raised alongside their four biological kids, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.
The couple were investigated in February 2024 after one of the children was brought to the University of Tennessee Hospital suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition.
Doctors at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, to which they were transferred, later found that the patients were severely underweight, having been given only liquified food and allowed only supervised access to it.
Michigan State Police found the cages and straitjackets when they searched the Klimp’s Wexford County home, along with security alarms placed around their bedroom door.
The couple was initially charged by the Wexford County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in February 2024, with Jason Klimp pleading no contest in March and his wife following suit this week.
They also previously pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated child abuse in Tennessee and were sentenced last October to 10 years behind bars, before being extradited back to their home state.
Nessel said the couple’s parental rights have been terminated and that they would serve their Tennessee prison terms concurrently with their eventual Michigan sentences.
Jason Klimp will be sentenced in the 28th Circuit Court in Wexford County on June 16. Jessica Klimp’s sentencing date has not yet been set.
“Kids deserve to grow up in a loving home free from abuse,” Nessel said.
“The cruelty that these children endured is heartbreaking, and while no outcome can erase the trauma, I hope these convictions will provide a sense of justice and healing.”
According to The Daily Mail, Jason Klimp last posted on social media in February two years ago when the investigation began, writing: “Friends, please continue to cover us in prayer. Can’t see the light of dawn yet. We could use that soon.”
Two days prior, he wrote: “The night is darkest just before the dawn. We honestly felt recently as though we were running through a pretty dark time.
“Yesterday was a realization of darker darkness. I’m so ready for the dawn! Bring on that Sunrise and a wonderful ‘tomorrow!’”
