Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Perfect' Christian Family Tortured Foster Child: Prosecutor

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

Joel Kohnert was a lieutenant with Broward Fire Rescue, and his wife, Jennifer Kohnert, was a stay-at-home mom. The Kohert's life in social media looked picture-perfect. But the state attorney in Broward County, Florida, said the Kohnerts abused their 12-year-old foster daughter for years. And now, the Kohnerts face new charges related to the biological children. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks it down in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Kaysia Earley https://www.instagram.com/kaysiaearley/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your serving with stance as a few offense are allegedly egregious. New trouble for a fire lieutenant and his wife accused of abusing a foster child. There are new charges and more allegations involving their own children. But one of their attorneys says the facts are on the parent's side. I'll explain. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy and this is crime fix. From the outside looking in, Joel and Jennifer Cohnert look like the perfect parents in a large family. Joel was a fire lieutenant at the Broward Sheriff's Fire Rescue.

Jennifer was a stay-at-home mom. The couple had five biological children, and they were also fostering a child, a girl from the time she was a baby until she was 12 years old. On Facebook, the Connerts looked picture perfect, but the state attorney in Broward County says there was something awful going on behind the photos and behind closed doors.

The claim? The 12-year-old girl, the Connerts had fostered since she was a baby, was being singled out in the home and mistreated. The girl, according to the prosecutor, was being tortured. A detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit. On February 11, 26, a Department of Children and Families investigator responded to the resource officer regarding allegations that blank was locked in her bedroom at night due to claims that she wandered the house and took items from the family members. The intake further indicated that during this period, the child did not have access to a bathroom,

resulting in her urinating on the floor and being forced to clean it the following morning. The intake also noted that the child was required to write Bible verses as a form of punishment. So this is just the beginning of what the state attorney says was torture. Investigators with children's services interviewed the girl twice over the span of two days. They said things the girl told them, raised serious. serious concerns. The investigator wrote, during these interviews, the child disclosed that for approximately two to three years, she had been locked in her bedroom overnight and at times during the day. She stated that while confined overnight, she urinates on herself and at times defecates

on herself due to lack of access to a bathroom. The child reported that in the morning she is required to bathe outside in the backyard while wearing a bathing suit despite inadequate weather conditions. Investigators said they also spoke with the biological children of the conerts. A detective wrote, I interviewed all of the children residing in the home who are the biological children of Jennifer and Joel. These children confirm that the child is locked in her room overnight, urinates and defecates on herself, and is required to bathe outside, and wash her clothing. All siblings advised that they are not subjected to that type of punishment. They reported that the child spent a majority of her time isolated in her room, writing proverbs, and is rarely

allowed to participate in normal family activities such as eating meals and playing with siblings. So investigators say the Conerts' biological children told them the girl was being isolated and kept in her room where she's forced to write proverbs. The investigators then turned their attention to the connors. The affidavit states, Jennifer agreed to speak with me and was advised of the DCF allegations. Jennifer admitted to locking the child in her room overnight and acknowledged that the child has been urinating and defecating on herself for approximately two to three years. Jennifer confirmed that the child is required to write proverbs as punishment and that she is required to bathe and wash her clothing outside with limited access to indoor facilities.

Jennifer acknowledged that these practices were unusual. Jennifer also stated that the victim would not thrive in her care and is willing to turn her back over to the state of Florida, although Jennifer and Joel have been her caretaker since she was two months old. Then investigators said they went and spoke with Joel Conert. The detective wrote in the affidavit during the interview. Joel acknowledged that there were safety concerns associated with the victim's bedroom door and window being secured in a manner that restricted her ability to exit. This practice is particularly concerning. And given Joel's professional background where he would reasonably be expected to recognize the inherent safety risk is associated with restricting a child's ability to exit a room during an emergency.

All of this information from the children and Joel and Jennifer formed the basis for the initial aggravated child abuse charge, but the investigation and review by prosecutors continued. And Jennifer and Joel, they were back in court this week and they now face additional charges of child neglect and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The delinquency of a minor charge states that a child did observe and or was encouraged to participate in the physical, mental, and or emotional abuse of a sibling. So the conerts are now accused of encouraging their own children to take part in the abuse of their foster sibling.

where they confirmed the information that was provided by the victim child as to the restrictions on her eating when the trial today restrictions on her movements for being locked in her bedroom and various other details and that is why the additional accounts for additional victims having added as well so there is a medical portion to this that has been uncovered since the original arrest and there has been evidence that they're being of the other minor children in the household being aware and exposed to the abuse of their city. Jennifer Conard-Tillier asked that she be allowed to remain free on bond. I want to call the court to touch to this. What I'm requesting is, my client has no prior record. She has two children at home, two adult children that are waiting for. There is a pending in the case with the children, which is now a county. There's a degree.

that it was going to be settled. This is a dependent. You're correct. The court. Exactly. Okay. And I would have called attention to the court that with no fire record,

my client at the magistrate hearing, the public defender at that time asked for a $15,000 bond on First County. The state, the state of Florida asked for a $50,000 bond. The magistrate on their own required $100,000 dollar bond. Okay, so there's a very large bond amount in this case already. Jennifer's attorney offered a possible defense claiming the foster child may have been violent.

I would suggest to support that my client could be placed on free trial, release on the other counts. I don't believe there is a necessity for an ankle monitor. They haven't you had an anchor monitor to this point, and it has been perfectly low-hiding and follow the rules past the crime. And I would also just, just to refuse something to prosecutor said, the reason that the biological children don't want to have contact with the alleged in his case, because they were threatened to be stabbed by them. So there's actually a valid factual reason why that is not the inference of the state of making that somehow the parents are not having influence on their point or not with the child. That is not the case. And the evidence would be borne outside. Jennifer Conert testified briefly about her current circumstances.

It's difficult to hear. So we put some subtitles on it. How many hours are we agreed on the day? Uh, the magistrate allowed Jennifer Conert to remain free on bail. Circumstances of your offense are allegedly egregious. Penalty upon conviction and the weight of evidence against the defendant in this matter is, please have yielded this court.

However, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial. And under the circumstances, the penalty on count one is 30 years in prison, count two, 15 years in prison, and individual counts of five years, of individual terms of five years in prison on counts three to six. As to the defendant's family ties, in this case, I have heard limited information as to that. However, I do understand that there are four minor children, that are biological children, and one adopted child,

who is the alleged victim in this case. Length of residence and community, extensive. As to employment history, prior from Mr. Connert, is a firefighter. I understand currently on restricted leave with the Department of Call Springs. As to financial resources, limited. Mental condition, not a factor.

Prior convictions not effective in previous flight to a board prosecution No such information provided failure to appear for more proceedings Clearly that is not the case as Coitator has been here attempted proceeding Danger to the defense releases to the community this particular factor this court does have a concern as to potential influence That the parents can have a biological children vis-vis-a-vis gerville. their relationship with their adult sibling. However, in order to address those particular concerns, whether I set a bond or pre-drial services in this matter, it is going to be the purpose of setting the restrictions is going to ensure that there is

compliance with the dependency proceedings. That is the court's orders that are in fact and will impact the visitations as well as any interaction between the parents as well as the biological children and the adult child. As to the other factors, this is not a controlled substance issue and intimidation to the victim falls on my previous analysis. Based on the totality of the circumstances, Cal 1 remains at $100,000, counts 236 pretrial services level 2 with a GPS monitor and a speciality of circumstances. conditions, stay away from the victim, no victim contact, all original conditions on remain in effect.

That is the court's order for counsel through to six. Mayor, would you kind of prepare that order? Ma'am, please do not leave the courtroom, okay? You are not being taken in custody of this time. However, it will be served by the wanted to deputies with the case. Right? Thank you very much. Then it was Joel Konert's turn to face the judge.

No victim contact, stay in order. The defendant may not have in contact with victims. I'm in person, people are used to social media. All original conditions are remain in effect. Mr. O'Connor, please do not have your courtroom. You are not being taken into custody this time. However, you will be served by the deputy with the case. All right? Thank you very much.

All right. Mr. Cobo, is anything else? I'll be up to your quiet. Have a guess, Your Honor. Thank you so much. have very good days. Thank you very much. All right.

So I'd like to bring in Caseya early. She's a criminal defense attorney in Florida who actually is based in Broward County where this case is taking place. She's also a candidate for the 22nd House District down there in Florida. KCa, thanks so much for coming back on. Thanks for having me, and to that. You know, you and I before we started recording here, we're talking about how horrific these allegations are. We already have a child who's in the system, a foster child. And she was with this family from the time she was a baby, according to what the prosecutors have said. But then between, I guess, 2023 and 26, they're saying she was subjected to this awful, awful abuse.

Yeah. These allegations are absolutely horrible. And I do not believe that that is the only time frame that they decided to be monsters. I believe. I believe. that this has been ongoing. Unfortunately, in this case, we don't have sufficient evidence, and maybe that's why the prosecution decided to just stick with that time frame for purposes of trying this case. But when you hear these allegations of this foster child, not only being abused, but her other siblings being subjected to viewing this abuse or participating, it gets even worse.

And then to find out that these parents claim to be Christians, and they're doing this in the name of religion, just blows this out of the water. So let's get into it. Yeah, let's get into that. Let's take this first piece of the puzzle. They interviewed the girl. They interviewed the 12-year-old girl

over the course of two days back in February. And it says that this girl said that for two to three years, she had been locked in her bedroom overnight at times during the day that she was confined overnight. She urinates on herself. and at times defecates on herself due to the lack of access to a bathroom. The child reported in the morning she's required to bathe outside in the backyard wearing a bathing suit, despite the weather being not adequate.

The biological children also confirmed this information according to what was in the original probable cause affidavit. I'm at a loss here because even if you have a foster child, Kaysia, who might be having some issues, who might be acting out, I would think you would have a duty to then take that child to the pediatrician or take that child to a counselor. And we can see if there's something more going on here. Does she have mental health needs? Of course.

And for the viewers, let's back it up a little bit. So we have mom and dad, Jennifer and Joelle, who has this foster child. And over the course of years, not only do they confine her to a room, there's a lock on the outside of the door. She's not allowed to use the restroom. So she would defecate or urinate on herself. And then in the morning, she's forced to clean it up, take a bath outside. In addition, some of her siblings would witness this on a daily ongoing basis. And I have the information here.

And some of the allegations for the aggravated child abuse included willful torture, malicious punishment, unlawful Cajun. restricted diet. She wasn't allowed to eat certain foods as her siblings, depriving access not only to the bathroom but to the other parts of the house. But what's even more egregious is that the parents would play this sound noise in her room so she would not have the access to hear what's going on in the outside. So this is beyond extreme torture, which is why she was charged with aggravated child abuse, first degree felony. They're looking at upwards of 30 years Florida State Prison. and you have neglect of a child

and that's a third degree felony. I suspect that the prosecution is going all the way. I don't care if these are first time offenders. You do not treat a child in this manner, whether it's your biological child or a foster child. If you cannot love care, pour into that child, you should not be a parent. And just like you said, Angina,

they had many options. If they were afraid that she was stealing or making threats to harm, any of the other children, there are avenues that you take. And for Lieutenant Joelle, who is Broward Sheriff Office, a lieutenant for the fire and rescue team, obviously he knew better. And this calls into question, do we really know our neighbors? So we pray for those children and the other children as well. And he lost his job. He's no longer employed with the Broward County Sheriff's. I mean, how could they keep him, right, with these allegations? And of course, he's innocent until proven

guilty. These are allegations. But law enforcement is saying the other children backed up what this girl was saying. Yeah. Listen, as a criminal defense attorney who's tried over 100 trials to verdict, I can just read the probable cause affidavit and know the direction of this case. I don't care what my client tells me. I always tell them, I don't believe you. I believe the evidence and I follow where the evidence takes me. And just as you stated, it's not just a child. Thank goodness that she was homeschooled. This is how it came out. She was homeschooled and then she enrolled into public school and she told someone. If she didn't release this information to anyone, who knows how long this torture could have been going on. So, you know, looking at the probable cause affidavit and looking

at the evidence that the state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, this shows that, you know, this is a heavy case against them, whether or not the defense has taken the claim that they're innocent and these are just, you know, erroneous allegations. And let's look at it from the defense point of view now. You know, Jennifer's defense attorney said in court, you know, basically, oh, she was trying to harm, you know, all the facts will come out. Some of the other children are with people. They have a guardian ad litem who might be biased, and he's saying all of these things. But he's claiming, well, she had a school physical.

So she had been to the doctor. A school physical doesn't really cut it. you know, as a parent, you're required or supposed to be taking your child to the pediatrician once a year for an actual physical with their pediatrician, a school physical, I don't think cuts it. This is beyond physical abuse. We're talking about mental abuse, social abuse that's been going on. She has been isolated in a room. And then on top of that, all of the torture that she endured. this is going to take years of counseling, mental health counseling specifically, so she can unravel what has been going on and to let her know, this was not natural.

This was not supposed to happen to you. For goodness sake, she's already in the system. And this is why we need social services to continually not only check on the household, especially if you're in the system, but make sure that there's wellness checks, some form of check and balance so that we will not. allow this to happen continuously. We are supposed to serve and protect our children. And this, unfortunately, you know, it's a surprise. I mean, Coral Springs is a middle-class neighborhood, and we know crime happens everywhere, and we don't know what happens behind closed doors.

But some of the neighbors had a hunch that maybe something could have been going on in the home. The parents kept her isolated. She wasn't allowed to make any friends, but they did not have enough to report. So we don't want to blame the neighbors. for not doing more because it happened behind closed doors. Yeah, no doubt. There are additional charges that have now been added, Kesea. When the Connors were originally arrested, they were charged with aggravated child abuse.

There have been other charges added now, including neglect of a child and also contributing to the delinquency of a minor. And that is because the prosecutors are saying they encouraged their bias. biological children to actually take part in some of this abuse toward the foster sister. So the foster daughter, and I'm like, whoa. So that information, we already know that they interviewed the biological children who confirmed what the foster child said.

But they were being encouraged to obviously take part in this abuse according to the charges. and they're all allegations. The coners have pleaded, not guilty. But wow. That is very powerful evidence, I think. It is. And those are the three additional charges contributed to a delinquency of a minor, in addition to the neglect of a child and aggravated child abuse.

And for cases like this, I pulled up both Joel and Jennifer's history. We don't see any prior criminal history. And based on my experience, this is how this case is going to go. No prior criminal history. mitigation for some form of plea resolution. When evidence is so overwhelming, obviously you enter a plea if not guilty initially, and then you start working up the case. You do a demand for discovery, a demand for Brady disclosure.

Once you look at all the information, if I had a case like this, we would have a real sit-down meeting with both mom and dad, whether it is a co-defendant attorney, and we tell them the pros and cons, because there's really only two choices. You go to trial. Evidence like this, you're going to be put away for the rest of your life. Or you evaluate them. Get them a mental evaluation.

Do a comprehensive evaluation. Why did this happen? And then present a mitigation packet to the state. And you're looking at possibly a probation term or even if it's a county sentence, but a lengthy probation sentence to ensure that they get the treatment that they deserve. But most importantly, take those children out of the home. They do not belong there. There's no form of rehabilitation.

You've already tortured them enough. You already abused them psychologically and physically. And you are not fit to be parents. And this should be a lesson to anyone, whether you are a biological parent or a parent seeking to have a child out of the foster care system. If you cannot take care of these children, let someone else do it. There's ways that you can give those children to a loving home. But this cannot be tolerated.

And as a prosecutor, I would say, seek a lengthy term of probation and jail to ensure that we save our children their priority. Yeah, it's just so, the allegations are so disturbing and gross to me, especially because Jennifer was a stay-at-home mom. So you're a stay-at-home mom and you're taking care of your children. And who knows if her own children will tell tales about not being treated right? But I'm thinking to myself, you're a stay-at-home mom. So basically, your job, if you will, you know, is to care for children, being a mother. And this sounds like she failed in more ways than one, according to what the prosecutors are saying. This sounds like demonic behavior covered under the

guise of a Christian household. There is no explanation for this. And again, yes, they're innocent until proven guilty. But oftentimes the evidence speaks to louder than the position of the plea that it's being entered. You do not say that this is for religious practices. You are not allowed to say that Jesus is king because Jesus is Lord and Jesus is love. And everything about this case is opposite of that. So, you know, to utilize religion or the practice of their Christianity, it makes absolutely no sense.

And we're going to follow this case more to see how it ends, but I'm pretty sure I have an idea. Yeah, it's disturbing to say the least. KCia Early, thank you so much. Thank you for happening. So the conerts remain free on bail, the bail that they've already posted. They are barred from having any contact with the alleged victims in this case, including their own children. Their trials are set for August, and those charges carry a possible penalty of 30 years in prison on the aggravated child abuse charge, 15 years on the child neglect charge, and possibly five years on the contributing to the delinquency of. of a minor charges.

We'll keep an eye on it and let you know what happens. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Manchinette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.