Mom of Franklin boy who tried to sell toy for food released from jail

A Franklin mother convicted of child endangerment charges after police found her 7-year-old son trying to sell his stuffed animal for food has been released from the Warren County Jail after serving just more than five months.

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Tammi Jo Bethel appeared in a jail uniform and shackled Tuesday in Franklin Municipal Court for a sentencing review on a pair of consecutive six-month jail terms.

Franklin Municipal Judge Rupert E. Ruppert suspended the remaining 28 days on her current jail term and the second six-month jail term she was facing.

Ruppert placed Bethel on two years probation and ordered her released from jail Tuesday evening.

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“I hope in this experience you have learned something so you don’t fall in the same old habits again, because you’ve had many bites of the apple and you didn’t change your ways,” Ruppert said. “So hopefully this incarceration has taught you that you simply cannot live that way if you have children in your home.”

Bethel told Ruppert that her children were staying with her mother.

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Bethel and her husband, Michael, were originally charged with five counts each of child endangering. The couple pleaded guilty to two charges and the others were dismissed. Her husband received identical jail terms, but was released early due to medical issues.

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“She learned her lesson,” said David Chicarelli Jr., Tammi Jo Bethel’s attorney. “This was an eye-opening experience for her and this was a long enough sentence.”

He said a plan is being developed by Warren County Children Services to reunify her with her children.

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