A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue lieutenant and his wife were arrested for allegedly locking their 12-year-old daughter for years inside a room at their Coral Springs home, authorities said.
Joel Christopher Kohnert, 44, and Jennifer Renee Kohnert, 45, were arrested by Coral Springs Police on Tuesday on charges of child abuse without great bodily harm, Broward jail records showed.
Both appeared before a Broward bond court judge on Wednesday where their attorney described them as “devout Christians” and “devoutly religious.”
“When you allegedly have got a 12-year-old child who is locked in a room for upwards of three years and is forced to urinate and defecate in the room and then clean it up with her clothes, that is not a religious issue, that is something else,” the judge replied.
The judge also said that the arrest reports said the couple admitted to locking the girl in the room.
“It talks about, it says based upon the husband’s, it doesn’t say specifically what he is, but it states that locking a child in the room from the outside, he knew, was wrong,” the judge said.
A prosecutor said that Joel Kohnert is a Broward Fire Rescue lieutenant, and said the couple’s children had been removed from the home by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The defense attorney disputed the details in the report and argued for $10,000 bonds for both the husband and wife, saying they have deep ties to the community and no criminal records.
The prosecutor asked for a $50,000 bond for each.
“The state is extremely concerned and frankly extremely bothered by the allegations, what was used to quote unquote discipline this child,” the prosecutor said.
The judge said he thought they should be charged with aggravated child abuse and set their bonds at $100,000 each, ordering them to have no contact with the 12-year-old, their biological children, or any other minors.
“I do understand she is innocent until proven guilty but the allegations here are difficult to say the least,” the judge said.
BSO officials said Kohnert was hired by BSFR on Nov. 15, 2010, and is currently on administrative investigative leave without pay.
NBC6 spoke with some neighbors who were shocked to hear of the arrests, while others weren’t surprised.
“I know he is very controlling. I know that they would walk up and down the street, she wasn’t allowed to cut her hair, she wasn’t allowed to make friends with a lot of people,” one neighbor said. “They kept to themselves, the little times we could see the children they kept them in strollers covered.”
The neighbors added that the family was religiously strict.
The victim was homeschooled for some time but when she started public school, staffers noticed something was wrong, which prompted an investigation.
