Howard Schneider: The Nightmare Dentist of Jacksonville

Note:

This entry is not about the Howard Schneider from Long Island who was mistaken for the one who will be covered here. While this blog does not condone abuse sent towards anyone it might cover, please take this as a reminder to always check facts before reacting in any way.

Very few people enjoy their trip to the dentist. Whether it's the fear of a painful procedure, a condescending doctor criticizing your oral hygiene, or the worry that they'll discover a severe problem that requires a painful procedure in the future, the fear of going to the dentist is one that is very well earned. Even Hollywood has helped fuel this fear in the past with dentists often portrayed as sadistic individuals or the idea that every exam is doomed to be an agonizing ordeal.

Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello in Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

So when it turns out that your dentist is in fact an actual monster, that alone can be the stuff of nightmares. But when that monster is also a pediatric dentist, it becomes exponentially worse. Children depend on their parents to keep them safe, to chase away the monsters in the closet and warn them about strangers with candy. So when the danger lies in the hands of someone who is supposed to be a trusted professional, the best way to fight back is to speak out. This would lead to the ultimate downfall of pediatric dentist, Howard Schneider of Jacksonville, Florida.

For several decades, Howard Schneider practiced dentistry on children. He was the only dentist in the area who accepted medicaid and this attracted many low-income families to his practice. Allegations of malpractice starts as early as 1995, though those cases were dropped and the details aren't currently available as of writing this. However, nearly a decade later, one parent would spark enough outrage that finally drew full attention to the sadistic dentist.

In 2014, Brandi Motley brought in her 6-year-old daughter Bri'el for a tooth extraction. Bri'el was taken into the office while her mother had to sit in the waiting room during the procedure. However, when 3 hours passed and she was still not allowed in the room to see her daughter, it became clear something wasn't right. That's when one of the nursing assistants came to fetch her, informing her that there had been an accident.

When Motley was brought into the room, she was greeted with the horrifying scene of her daughter lying face-down on the ground, hyperventilating, and her blood all over the floor. The nurse told her that Bri'el had been on a papoose board, left alone for only a few minutes, and that when they returned they had found her on the floor. But according to Motley, her daughter had bruises and scratches on her body, and her mouth had been packed with bloody gauze. That was when she pulled her daughter immediately out of the office and into her car.

The scene had been enough to make Motley justifiably suspicious, but when Bri'el took the gauze out of her mouth, her worst fears were confirmed. Bri'el told her mother that Schnieder and his nurse had lied and that he had been choking her while pulling out her teeth. Motley then noticed that even though Bri'el had only been scheduled for one extraction, Schneider had instead pulled out eight of her front teeth, prompting the mother to take her daughter straight to the ER. Further examination showed that Bri'el also had a fractured nose, eye, and a bruised hand print on her neck.

Motley attempted to sue the dentist for malpractice, but the lawyer she met with, John Phillips, refused to take the case, informing her it would be nothing more than a case of he-said-she-said that she couldn't win. This did not stop her from trying to expose Schneider, so in April of 2015, Motley took to Facebook, posting the photos taken of her daughter after the procedure, as well as her account as to what happened that day.

The post went viral and soon other angered parents began speaking out about their own experiences. This led to a wave of horror stories being made public, triggering protesters to picket outside of Schneider's office as well as some much-warranted attention from the media.

Possibly the most disturbing piece of evidence to be leaked, was a video that was secretly filmed by a mother named Sherraine Christopher, who had taken her 3-year-old son, Zion, for an appointment. During this visit, Schneider ground down 16 of the toddler's teeth to be fitted for crowns (a procedure the child allegedly did not need) without using painkillers or anesthetic of any kind, nor offering an explanation to the concerned mother. In the video, Zion is seen already strapped down, screaming and kicking while Schneider and the nurse proceed, ignoring the boy's agony.

The video is still available to be seen on YouTube, but viewer discretion is advised as it is disturbing to watch.

With the evidence and outrage mounting, Schneider finally closed the doors to his practice, voluntarily surrendered his medical license, and lawyer John Phillips, who had initially refused to take on the case for Bri'el, had a change of heart and took up a total of 131 individual cases from families against Schneider. At least 104 of those cases were settled while Schneider refused any admission of wrongdoing.

Even though turning over his license spared him from a full investigation from the medical board, Schneider was not able to escape a criminal investigation entirely. In November of 2015, Schneider was arrested and charged with 11 counts of Medicaid provider fraud, alleging that he had collected over $4 million in payments from the government in five years alone. He plead not guilty and was examined by medical professionals who deemed him incompetent to stand trial. They stated he was likely suffering dementia at the time and in 2018, the State Attorney's Office dropped all criminal charges due to his deteriorating mental condition.

While there are still many who feel the former dentist should have faced time in prison for the damage he caused on so many children, Jacksonville parents can at least take comfort in the knowledge that Howard Schneider will not be operating on their children ever again.

Sources:

• ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/dentist-accused-harming-child-patients-making-millions-dollars/story?id=36528657
• Lawyer John Phillips' Official Site: https://floridajustice.com/dentist-howard-s-schneider-update-happened-incompetency-hearing/
• Action News Jax: https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/charges-dropped-against-jacksonville-pediatric-dentist-accused-of-mistreatment/708443763

Katherine Knight

Our upbringing can shape us into the people we are today, often for the better. Katherine Knight, however, is a perfect example of what a horrific childhood can produce.

Conceived during an extramarital affair, Katherine's early years were laden with abuse brought on by multiple members of her family. Her mother was routinely beaten and raped by her partner, and in turn she would give Katherine graphic details of the encounters, as well as telling her how much she hated sex and men. Katherine herself was said to have been sexually abused several times by members of her family until she was 11 years old, and the family members she accused of the abuse have since all confirmed her claims were true.

Though she often had a tendency for violence, Katherine was an otherwise model student, and though she couldn't read or write, she managed to find employment as a cutter in a clothing factory. She later found other work cutting up offal at the local abattoir, where she was quickly promoted to boning and given her own set of butcher knives. She claimed it was her dream job and had a set of knives hung above her bed "in case I ever need them."

Katherine's violent tendencies grew over time, and she soon earned herself a reputation of being willing to attack anyone who upset her. Her first marriage was to an alcoholic coworker named David Stanford Kellett, and on their wedding day, her mother warned him to keep an eye out or her daughter would likely kill him if he made her mad. On their wedding night, Katherine attempted to strangle him, saying she was angry at him for falling asleep after only having intercourse with her three times.

The couple had a child together, but Katherine's violence grew as she often attacked her husband in fits of jealous rage, including an incident where she hit her husband's head so hard with a frying pan, she fractured his skull. Kellett eventually left Katherine for good, unable to cope with the constant abuse any longer. The following night, she was admitted to St. Elmo's hospital after being seen violently tossing her infant's pram from side to side, the baby still inside, but was released on good behavior. Katherine then left the baby on a railway line, took up an ax, and headed into town where she threatened to kill people. The infant was rescued minutes before the next train was due to arrive, and Katherine was admitted into St. Elmo's again, but released the very next day.

Not long after, Katherine attacked a woman, slashing her face with a knife and forcing her to drive towards Queensland to find her husband. The woman managed to escape and by the time the police arrived, Katherine was holding a young boy hostage. She was eventually subdued, then admitted into another psychiatric hospital where she revealed she had intended to kill her husband, his mother, and his mechanic as punishment for fixing the car he left in.

Some months after her release, she became involved with, and even had a child with a man named David Saunders, but this would also prove to be disastrous. Katherine suffered severe jealousy over her partner and even cut the throat of his 2-month-old dingo pup in front of him as a warning of what she would do if he ever cheated on her. The two eventually got a house together, but after a fight that ended in Katherine smashing his face with an iron and stabbing him in the stomach with a pair of scissors, Saunders went into hiding. He came back briefly in an attempt to see their daughter, but Katherine went to the police and had an AVO issued against him.

Another relationship and another child later, Katherine soon became involved with a man named John Price. Price had three children of his own, one of which was living with his ex-wife. He was well aware of Katherine's violent history. Despite that, he let her move in with him and his two children, willing to overlook the occasional violent arguments. When Price refused to marry her, Katherine retaliated by video taping items Price had stolen from work and sent it to his boss, causing him to get fired. Price kicked her out of the house for it, but it did not end there.

Despite their falling out, Price restarted his relationship with Katherine, though he refused to let her move in with him again. Unable to handle the violent relationship, Price's friends abandoned him, no longer wanting to be a part of it. Soon enough the violent fights began again, and after Katherine stabbed him in the chest, Price drove her out again and went out to have a restraining order placed against her. He told he coworkers that day that if he didn't show up for work the next day, it was because Katherine killed him.

The following morning, Price did not show up for work, and his coworker and a neighbor turned up at his house to check on him. When they found blood on his front door, they called the police who broke down the door when they arrived. What they found was something out of a horror movie.

Price's body was on the floor, having been stabbed up to 37 times. He had been skinned, his skin hanging from a meat hook on the architrave of a door to the lounge room. He had been beheaded and parts of him had been cooked up and served on two settings with vegetables on the dining table. Next to each setting was a place card, each with a name for both his children. Thankfully, neither of his children were home at the time of the murder.

Katherine is the first Australian woman to have ever received a life sentence without the chance of parole and is currently still being held at the Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre in New South Wales.