March 30
Father faces trial on 10 charges of child neglect
By Rod Rose Assistant Managing Editor The Lebanon Reporter Wed Mar 30, 11:05 PM EDT
Boone County William Knell, 55, whom police say has a history of leaving his children in deplorable conditions, is to be tried May 9 on 10 counts of child neglect.
Knells wife, Catherine Knell, 47, had also faced 10 child neglect charges, but accepted a plea agreement on Feb. 4. Mrs. Knell, who gave police a Brownsburg address, received 1-1/2-year suspended sentences for three of the counts, 1 1/2 years suspended on another count, and two years probation. She had spent 90 days in the Boone County Jail, where she was held on $10,000 bond, after her Oct. 14 arrest.
The charges cover periods beginning in May and ending on Sept. 1.
Testimony by Jenny Essex and Sarah Middendorf, both of the Indiana Department of Child Services, and Lebanon Police Dept. Det.-Capt. Maurice Hobson on Oct. 25 last year revealed the Knell home at 1610 Ashley Drive was layered in filth, overrun by cockroaches, with rotting food in the refrigerator, bathrooms and bedrooms, and toilets filled with feces.
The chair that Mr. Knell had been sitting in appeared to be covered in urine and feces, Essex said.
For more of the story, see Thusdays Lebanon Reporter.
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