SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The director of a homeless shelter in Shelbyville has been arrested again. And like her arrest earlier this month, she is again accused of taking advantage of the vulnerable people she was supposed to be helping.
When she was first arrested, Brenda Knight was charged with financially exploiting the homeless and elderly and theft of over $1,000 for taking advantage of the men and women who stayed at the shelters she runs in Shelbyville.
Now she's facing even more charges. Police arrested her again Tuesday morning and charged her with eight counts of Fraudulent Receipt of Food Assistance or, as it's more commonly known, SNAP or food stamp trafficking.
We spoke with Knight shortly after her first arrest in early June and asked her, "Do you think you’ve done anything wrong?"
She told us, "No ma’am."
Knight calls her organization Castle Ministries and she is the director.
In addition to the Open Hands men's shelter and women's shelter, the non-profit also runs a thrift store and Bible classes.
"We are a volunteer, we are just a small ministry. We are serving the Lord. We are just trying to show compassion and help the ones that are transitioning to a housing program," Knight told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
But Shelbyville police say Knight required people who stayed in her shelters to first clear out their bank accounts and give her all of their money. She also charged them what she called "a bed fee."
"Some have paid $150 a week. Some have paid $640 a month," Shelbyville Police Detective Samuel Campbell told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
"That almost sounds like rent?" we suggested.
"Yes," he replied.
Now, with the latest charges, Knight is accused of requiring residents to use their food stamp cards to supply food for the shelters.
According to Knight's arrest affidavits, one woman spent somewhere between $300 and $500 both last month and the month before.
Another woman who'd stayed at the shelter last year told police she spent $250 in food stamps after Knight sent her to the store with a list of things to buy.
And even two years ago, a man said he had no money to pay the bed fee at the shelter, so he was required to use his food stamp card to buy food for both the men's and women's shelters.
Earlier this month, we heard the same thing when we spoke with Lauren Kernen who'd stayed at the shelter last summer.
"She did want $50 a month of my food stamps to buy food," Kernen recalled.
"And she was going to use your food stamp card?" we asked.
"Yes, my food stamp card," Kernen confirmed.
We tried to ask Knight about this when we spoke with her earlier this month.
"And you require the people who are living with you to share their EBT cards with you?" we asked.
"No, we don’t require. We do ask them, we never take their cards," Knight replied.
Then we asked, "What do you do with their cards?"
Knight then quickly stopped answering our questions about the EBT cards.
She is due in court on all of the charges next month.
PREVIOUS RELATED REPORTING ON BRENDA KNIGHT:
Director of Shelbyville homeless shelter arrested and accused of exploiting residents
