{"id":338766,"date":"2026-07-13T19:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338766\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:21:11","slug":"bso-fire-rescue-lieutenant-and-wife-accused-of-locking-girl-in-room-for-years-face-new-charges-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/338766\/","title":{"rendered":"BSO Fire Rescue lieutenant and wife accused of locking girl in room for years face new charges \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue lieutenant and his wife <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcmiami.com\/news\/local\/bso-fire-rescue-lieutenant-and-wife-accused-of-locking-12-year-old-in-room-for-years\/3789530\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nbcmiami.com\/news\/local\/bso-fire-rescue-lieutenant-and-wife-accused-of-locking-12-year-old-in-room-for-years\/3789530\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">arrested for allegedly locking their 12-year-old adopted daughter for years inside a room<\/a> at their Coral Springs home are now facing more serious charges and additional counts involving their other children, records showed.<\/p>\n<p>Joel Christopher Kohnert, 44, and Jennifer Renee Kohnert, 45, were arrested back in March on child abuse without great bodily harm charges.<\/p>\n<p>The couple was back in court on Monday as prosecutors upgraded the charges to aggravated child abuse, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors have also filed five additional counts, including one alleging child neglect involving their adopted daughter, and four involving their biological children, who were between the ages of 3 and 12 at the time investigators said the alleged crimes occurred.<\/p>\n<p>Police said the investigation began after the couple&#8217;s 12-year-old adopted daughter told school staff she had been locked in a bedroom for years with no way out, forced to urinate and defecate in the room before cleaning it herself, and made to write Bible verses as a form of punishment.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/040126-Coral-Springs-home-Joel-and-Jennifer-Kohnert.png\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\"The Coral Springs home of Joel and Jennifer Kohnert\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tNBC6NBC6<\/p>\n<p>The Coral Springs home of Joel and Jennifer Kohnert<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorneys claim it was a misunderstanding of their religious beliefs, but the arrest report said the adopted girl was the only one of the seven kids who endured the abuse.<\/p>\n<p>In court Monday, a judge left the couple&#8217;s bond unchanged at $100,000 but ordered that they remain on GPS monitoring and reaffirmed that they can&#8217;t have contact with any of the minor children unless permitted by the dependency court.<\/p>\n<p>BSO officials said Joel Kohnert is currently on administrative leave without pay.<\/p>\n<p>The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 20, with the trial tentatively scheduled for Aug. 31, though that date is likely to change.<\/p>\n<p>The couple will be tried together, and both have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue lieutenant and his wife arrested for allegedly locking their 12-year-old adopted daughter for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[4555,249,251,250],"class_list":["post-338766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-coral-springs","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}