Broward, FL, Fire Lieutenant, Wife Charged with Locking Girl in Room for Years

Angie DiMichele, Shira Moolten

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

(TNS)

A Broward Sheriff’s Office Fire Rescue lieutenant and his wife are accused of locking a 12-year-old girl in a bedroom overnight for years, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Joel Kohnert, 44, and his wife, Jennifer Kohnert, 45, were arrested Tuesday by Coral Springs Police. They were both held Wednesday in the Broward Main Jail on one count of child abuse without causing great bodily harm.

The Department of Children and Families began investigating in February after meeting with a resource officer at the 12-year-old girl’s school in Coral Springs, the redacted affidavit said.

For two to three years, the girl’s bedroom door was locked from the outside overnight and sometimes during the day, she told investigators. Her window also was locked, leaving no way for her to escape, according to the affidavit. A sound machine would be played on high volume in her room to prevent her from hearing the others in the home.

Investigators noted that Joel Kohnert’s position as a first responder made some aspects “particularly concerning,” according to the affidavit, “where he would reasonably be expected to recognize the inherent safety risks associated with restricting a child’s ability to exit a room during an emergency.”

The girl did not have access to a bathroom, the affidavit said, and she was forced to wash her clothes in a small bucket and to bathe outside in their backyard.

Investigators found that other children in the home had proper furniture and toys and personal items in their clean bedrooms while the 12-year-old had an air mattress and little else in hers, the affidavit said. As punishments, the girl was required to write Bible verses and tread water for as long as 45 minutes.

A week before law enforcement learned of the alleged abuse, Jennifer Kohnert had pulled her hair and hit and kicked her, the girl told investigators.

The Kohnerts appeared before a judge Wednesday, who set their bonds at $100,000 each, WTVJ-Ch. 6 reported. A defense attorney told the judge the couple are “devout Christians” and “devoutly religious”  and disputed some details in the affidavit, the station reported.

“When you allegedly have got a 12-year-old child who is locked in a room for upwards of three years … that is not a religious issue, that is something else,” the judge said.

Joel Kohnert has worked for BSO Fire Rescue since 2010 and is on administrative investigative leave without pay, said Carey Codd, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson.

Information for the couple’s attorney was not available.

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