Cops: Dad paid girl $21 to fight teen

SHELTON, Conn. (WTNH) -- A man was arrested after police say he paid a teenage girl $21 to fight another girl he believed was bullying his daughter.

Police say Philip Prokop, 42, paid off a 17-year-old girl to fight a 13-year-old suspected bully.

"My daughter was put through torture and she finally came forward to tell us," Prokup said.

Prokop spoke exclusively with News 8 explaining what happened outside Shelton's Huntington Plaza on May 26th.

"It's saying you asked a girl to beat up one of the girls," said News 8's Erin Logan.

"Absolutely not," Prokup replied.

Police say he paid a teenager $21 to beat up the girl who was bullying his daughter at Shelton Intermediate, where she was an eighth grader.

The incident has him facing two felony charges and conspiracy to commit assault.

He says his daughter has been harassed by girls and boys quite a bit and became severely depressed.

"The kids are afraid to speak up," Prokup said.

Finally, he says she got the courage.

Prokop says he and his daughter showed up at Sassafras Diner because they were informed she was there. He wanted to be with his daughter when she confronted the alleged bully. From there, things got out of control.

"I introduced myself and who I was and who my daughter was and I told them to stop bullying my daughter," Prokup said, "and the next thing there was a girl on the ground. The girl that bullied my daughter was on top of that girl beating her face in."

Prokup says that's when he was going to stop it and someone came from behind him.

"You don't know, it could've been a man, anybody, in which I wiggled them off," he said.

However, it wasn't a man, it was kid. And hours later, Prokup was arrested.

He says sadly, the other girl arrested was the victim and not the bully.

"I just don't understand how that's possible," Prokup said.

He's confident his name will be cleared.

"In broad daylight I'm gonna hire a girl to something," Prokup said. "It just doesn't make any sense."

Prokop says he wants his daughter away from the bullies. In the fall, he'll place her in a new school system to keep her safe.

Prokup will appear in court on Monday.