Beaten and locked up: Another abuse case raises questions about Iowa's response

First of a two-part series.

PART TWO: Weak home-school laws can make children targets for abuse, experts say

The 17-year-old girl was barefoot, wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms, when she stole away from home last December and rode her bike to a nearby Casey’s convenience store in Urbandale.

When police questioned her, they saw she had bruises, raised black-and-blue welts and open sores. She told them they were the handiwork of her brother, who was instructed by their mother to beat her and their 14-year-old sister however he chose.

Malayia Knapp's alarming allegations were relayed to police and child protective workers on Dec. 1, 2015, recorded in police reports and confirmed in a child abuse investigation that resulted in her mother's conviction of assault.

The teen's description of what happened rings eerily familiar to the case of 16-year-old Natalie Finn of West Des Moines, who died of starvation Oct. 24, and two of Natalie's younger siblings who prosecutors say were tortured. Natalie's younger siblings are part of an active child-welfare case and are under state supervision.

The two families' circumstances have raised additional questions about whether state child-welfare officials are taking appropriate steps to safeguard children when abuse has been reported.

Natalie and her siblings had been adopted out of foster care and later pulled from public schools to be home-schooled by their mother, who is now charged with Natalie's murder.

The children in the Knapp family — which includes three biological children and six adopted from the state — were also home-schooled. Seven of the children remain in the family home in Urbandale.

Like the Finn children, Malayia and other children adopted by Mindy and Anthony Knapp were the subjects of abuse, police reports and a lengthy child abuse assessment by the Iowa Department of Human Services show.

DHS officials have said confidentiality laws prohibit them from talking about active child-welfare cases. Urbandale police also declined to comment.

Beatings with belts

Malayia told child protective workers the children received beatings with belts so severe that the belts broke. They were frequently forced to exercise for long periods of time as punishment, including being made to run barefoot outside in winter with no coat and no shoes, the normally confidential child abuse report given to the Register's Reader's Watchdog shows.

Malayia also said she had been tied up repeatedly with belts and scarves, according to the report. She and her half-siblings were often locked up for hours, a ritual that she said started soon after they were adopted.

And, she said, their mother forced the children to beat each other.

“I think that was so we wouldn’t team up against her,” Malayia, now 18, told Watchdog in an interview.

Video from cameras in the four-bedroom house shows Mindy Knapp handing the older children a belt to discipline a sibling and locking them up for hours on end, according to the reports. Prosecutors used the video as evidence in a criminal case against Mindy Knapp that resulted in her conviction for assault.

Malayia said at first, she and her siblings were locked with their belongings inside their bedrooms. Later, she said, she and her 14-year-old sister, who had tried to run away in 2014, were locked inside a small basement room with no windows, no bed and a steel door locked from the outside.

Once, after Memorial Day 2015, Malayia told a child protective worker, Mindy Knapp locked her in that room for seven days straight with no food and a small pitcher of water. She said she was allowed to go to the bathroom once a day when her father came home from work and sometimes take a shower then, the child abuse report says.

“I hardly drank any of the water because I didn’t want to pee my pants,” she told Watchdog.

Both Malayia and her sister had urinated on themselves at times, according to the child protective report.

Police also noted in their reports that the room smelled of urine — stronger than the odor of pet urine and feces that pervaded the house.

Urbandale police reports and the child abuse investigation found that at least two of the other children had tried to run away, but police brought them back.

Malayia said police never looked at the locks outside the children’s doors until she ran away her first and only time in December 2015. She told Watchdog that human services caseworkers, who visited the house while her brother was being adopted from foster care from 2012 to 2015, also didn’t question the older children alone or check the basement.

State Sen. Matt McCoy, who contacted Watchdog while both were investigating Finn's death after criminal charges were brought against her parents last month, obtained a briefing on the Knapp case from human services workers.

State law allows lawmakers to receive details in the otherwise confidential cases if the subject of an abuse investigation gives permission. Malayia did.

“As bad as the Finn case was, the Knapp case is just as bad,” McCoy said. “Malayia’s accusations were founded. But in her case, the court, despite those findings, thought it was in the best interest to leave her siblings in the care of the parents.”

Mother: Teen loves drama

Approached on her Urbandale doorstep, Mindy Knapp told Watchdog that Malayia, whom she and her husband, Anthony, adopted at age 10, “likes drama.” But she said she and her husband would not consent to an interview.

Her lawyer, Scott Bandstra, said he was withdrawing from the case and had no comment.

Malayia Knapp said she was the oldest of six half-siblings of two parents with drug abuse problems and was placed in foster care at age 7 while living in Chariton in Lucas County.

She and two siblings, then ages 6 and 2, were the first in her family to be adopted by Mindy Knapp, who had babysat them, and her mechanic husband, who also is called Andy. The Knapps changed the children’s names and Social Security numbers when they were adopted out of foster care, she said.

Human services officials said the amount the couple was paid over time after adopting six children is considered confidential. The amounts today can range from $5,800 to more than $12,000 a year for each special-needs sibling coming out of foster care, according to the Iowa Department of Human Services.

The Knapps eventually adopted three more of the half-siblings and moved in 2009 from Chariton to their Urbandale home, valued at $262,500.

Mindy Knapp alleged to officials in juvenile court that Malayia had a mix of destructive mental diagnoses that made her prone to harmful behavior and manipulation.

Among other things, she claimed that Malayia had reactive attachment disorder, a condition common in abused and adopted children who lack the ability to bond properly with others.

She also contended Malayia Knapp was prone to acting out because of abuse she suffered in the care of her birth parents.

But Malayia told Watchdog her adoptive mother never produced any formal psychological records or evaluations tied to those claims. And Department of Human Services workers told McCoy in their briefing that Malayia had no such diagnoses, he said.

“She was never diagnosed with anything,” McCoy said. “The department believed her 100 percent.”

Tough discipline worsened

The adopted children in the Knapp home were treated more harshly than the couple’s birth children, and that abuse worsened over time, Malayia told Watchdog.

The Knapps’ three birth children and the younger children in the home were allowed to go places such as The Network Connection, a private Christian organization in Des Moines that helps supplement education provided by home-schooling parents, Malayia said.

But Malayia and the other older adopted siblings were largely kept at home when they were home-schooled, she said.

“Mindy would give us school books and tell us to study, but she wouldn’t teach,” she said.

Malayia’s school reports, created by Mindy and given to the court, suggest she earned good grades. Nothing in the child abuse probe suggests the teen used drugs, physically assaulted her parents or rebelled more severely than talking back.

Once, she said, she threw away the family’s forks because her mother made her wash so many dishes.

The Rev. James Snow, a minister at Heritage Assembly of God in Des Moines, said in an interview that he and his wife, Deanna, noticed Mindy’s harsh treatment of the adopted children when the family attended their church in 2011.

Snow said he and his wife tried to talk with the couple about their treatment of Malayia in particular.

“She started telling us Malayia had demons, problems from her past, and that’s when I drew the line,” the minister said.

Snow and his wife gained permission from Mindy Knapp to talk to Malayia alone, but she only giggled and denied anything bad was going on, Snow said.

The family left the church immediately after, he said.

Malayia said she and her adoptive mother clashed often as she grew older and began to speak her mind. Malayia told Mindy Knapp that she wished she’d never been adopted because, at least with her birth parents, she had felt loved.

“She said she could do whatever she wanted to us as long as she didn’t kill us,” Malayia said. “I knew that wasn’t right.”

Malayia said Knapp told her she would kick her out of the house as soon as she turned 18, so Malayia asked if she could get a job to start saving money.

Knapp agreed, and, when she was 17, Malayia started working at a nearby McDonald’s. In time, however, Knapp grew upset because Malayia talked to people at work, Malayia said.

Just before Thanksgiving 2015, Knapp forced the teen to quit her job at McDonald’s and took her debit card and phone, according to police and child protective reports.

Malayia later told a child protective worker her mother took the $1,400 she had in a savings account and transferred it to her own account. Then she went shopping and bought the other kids presents “for putting up with Malayia,” according to a child abuse report.

“She kept the rest,” she told Watchdog.

Hiding in a bathroom

Malayia said she doesn’t remember what first triggered her mother’s anger at her and her sister on Nov. 30, 2015.

But Knapp was so upset with Malayia and the 14-year-old that she told their 16-year-old brother to discipline them both, something Mindy was increasingly doing, according to the child abuse report.

The teen made Malayia and her sister run up and down basement stairs while pouring water on their heads — given to him by Knapp — as punishment for being rebellious, the police and child abuse reports show.

The girls were also forced to do push-ups, sit-ups and run outside soaking wet without shoes or a coat. When they didn’t move quickly enough, her brother would hit them with a belt or pour more water on them, according to the child abuse report.

The next morning, Malayia told police, the punishment continued. Her brother told her and her sister to run stairs again and run outside around the house. When Malayia went to put her coat and shoes on, she said, her mother told her she didn’t deserve them, and Malayia took them off.

Malayia was running around the house when she realized her mother wasn’t looking. She told Watchdog she grabbed her bike, pedaled to the Casey’s and hid her bike behind a trash bin so her mother couldn’t find her. She asked a store clerk for a phone and hid in a bathroom while she called Urbandale police

“The guy kind of looked at me like I was crazy,” she said.

Her interviews with police and child protective workers that day lasted hours.

“I told them you need to get my siblings right now,” Malayia told Watchdog. “I can’t tell you what’s going on unless you promise me I’m never going back there.”

On the Monday morning Malayia fled, Mindy Knapp called police to report her as a runaway.

But this time, police visited the house and saw the locks on the outside of the children’s bedroom doors and cameras in or just outside their bedrooms. They noted that Malayia and her sister had no mattress in the small, windowless room they shared.

Still, when police questioned Knapp’s 14-year-old sister that day, she began to cry and said she didn’t want to have to live in a group home. She said the family was the best she had ever had, according to the child abuse report.

The 14-year-old said she too had been beaten with a belt. But she told Urbandale Officer Melissa Waalk that she deserved the punishment she received. And if Waalk was a Christian, the girl said, she would understand “that it is the parents’ right to spank their child and that is what God would want them to do.”

When interviewed by the child protective worker, the same sister suggested Malayia was lying about how she was treated, and Malayia hurt herself "to get people in trouble," according to the abuse report.

No voice, no trial

Mindy Knapp eventually told police that she had her 16-year-old adopted son beat the girls that night with the belt and poured water on them. She said she did so because she had a migraine, a police report says.

She told police and child protective workers that she and her husband kept locks on the doors to keep the girls from running away.

Almost a month later, after Malayia had moved permanently from the home, she was interviewed again by a child protective worker.

This time she shared more about the abuse. Among other things, she said, Mindy Knapp had tied Malayia's sister overnight “like a hammock” above her bed, according to the child abuse report. She said her sister, the same sister who said she’d deserved her punishment, tried to run away once after being locked up all day, but failed and was beaten.

Mindy Knapp also made Malayia wear a trench coat for six months because she believed the teen was trying to seduce her husband, Malayia told the child protective worker.

After the interviews with authorities in December 2015, child protective workers sought a court order to remove the children from the Knapp home.

Malayia moved from an emergency shelter into a foster care home in Colo, Ia., but reached out to the Rev. Snow and his wife on Facebook.

When Malayia said she wanted to get an apartment and attend Des Moines Area Community College, Deanna Snow offered to have her move in with them, James Snow said.

“She has been a perfect kid,” he said. “She’s great.”

Both Mindy and Anthony Knapp eventually were found responsible by Iowa's Department of Human Services for multiple allegations of abuse. Such a "finding" of abuse is more substantial than "confirmed" abuse, which means it took place but was minor and unlikely to reoccur.

Those found responsible for abuse are placed on the Iowa Child Abuse Registry and prohibited from working with children or dependent adults.

Some of the “founded” allegations against Mindy Knapp included physical abuse, as well as denial of critical care for locking Malayia and her sister in the small room without access to food, water or a restroom. The "founded" allegations against Anthony Knapp included failure to provide adequate food, failure to provide proper supervision and physical abuse by omission.

Mindy Knapp, 39, was charged criminally in April with two counts of assault causing bodily injury or mental illness. She pleaded guilty to one count of simple assault and was given a year’s probation and a deferred judgment by Polk County Judge Terry L. Wilson.

Malayia said she never got to testify or give a victim statement.

Children back in the home

McCoy said he was told the human services workers involved in the case opposed allowing the other children to be returned to the Knapp home.

But after the parents acknowledged mistakes and agreed to services, Judge Colin Witt sent them back.

"He felt they could salvage the family and that pulling them out would be more disruptive," McCoy said.

Witt can't comment because the child-welfare case is ongoing.

McCoy said his understanding is that the parents are on "probationary" status, and any new allegations of abuse could change the decision to keep the children in the home.

Anthony and Mindy Knapp continue to receive special-needs subsidies from Human Services for adopting the half-siblings from foster care, McCoy said.

McCoy said he believes Mindy Knapp's parental rights should have been severed, and that neither she nor her husband should be receiving taxpayer-backed subsidies after essentially breaking a contract to care for children they adopted from foster care.

Human Services workers, the Polk County Attorney’s Office, guardians and several lawyers are still involved in ongoing child welfare cases involving other children in the home. Witt said two hearings have been scheduled in those cases, including one at the end of the month.

State Rep. Greg Heartsill, a Melcher-Dallas Republican, said he also has inquired and been told "outstanding concerns in the case are being dealt with to the extent that they can be." He said he still has concerns, but he is "letting DHS do its job."

Heartsill was recruited to look into the case by Lynn Hoskins, biological paternal grandmother to Malayia and two of the other children. She said she has tried to intervene legally. One of the boys in the house to whom Hoskins is related has been removed.

When Malayia and the children were first removed from their mother's home, Hoskins said she and her husband spent thousands of dollars trying to gain custody. She said child-welfare workers didn't want her son around the children, but Hoskins couldn't give up on him.

Eight and a half years after feeling she failed the three children, Hoskins said, she was elated when Malayia reached out to her on Facebook.

Today, Hoskins’ son is clean and sober, she said. He and Malayia have been reunited.

But Hoskins, of Knoxville, said she is deeply worried about the two other children, a boy and girl.

“I can’t control it. But I pray,” she said. “Thank God Malayia is a strong-willed girl. She might not have survived if she wasn’t.”

Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com, 515-284-8549 on Twitter @leerood or at Facebook.com/readerswatchdog.