Kathryn Knott Could Get Out of Jail Next Week
Kathryn Knott walks from the criminal justice center Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, in Philadelphia. Knott is charged with taking part in a violent attack on a gay couple.
Most of us will be hitting the Jersey Shore or checking out local parades and fireworks this weekend, but not Kathryn Knott. Nope. The convicted gay basher is going to be celebrating America’s birthday inside of the jail that she’s called home since February.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Roxanne Covington has denied Knott’s motion for early release. Knott was sentenced in February to five to 10 months in jail, and her minimum release date on paper is July 8th. But Pennsylvania law allows for early release for good behavior, and Knott has been a “model prisoner,” in the words of William Brennan, her current attorney.
Brennan’s motion stated that Knott hasn’t had any infractions while in custody, and she completed a court-ordered anger management program while behind bars. There was also a report prepared by a prison official, who indicated that Knott’s family has been “very involved” during her incarceration. Thanks to the media attention that her story received, Knott has been in protective custody since entering jail.
Alas, Covington was apparently unmoved, denying the motion with a one-page order that does not explain her reasons for doing so.
So will Knott become a free woman next week, when her minimum release date arrives?
“I am cautiously optimistic,” Brennan tells us. “The essence of stating a minimum is to say that this is the release date if she’s a model prisoner, which she has been.”
Brennan says that he’s going to submit another motion to the court as early as Thursday of this week to ask the judge to order Knott’s release on July 8th.
“I would think that our chances are better this time,” he says.
Even if Knott does get out of jail next week, her legal problems aren’t over. She must pay a $2,000 fine and complete two years of probation.
Plus, Knott finds herself the defendant in two separate civil lawsuits. A woman who was behind an anti-Knott online account says that Knott was part of a conspiracy against her, so she’s suing Knott and others for $5 million. And the victims in the gay-bashing case have sued Knott and the two other attackers.
Brennan says that Knott has lined up a job upon her release, but he wasn’t sure of the details.
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