Jackson woman faces charges after police find unsanitary conditions

A Jackson woman is facing child endangerment and animal neglect charges after police say they found her home to be filled with trash and animal feces.

Katherine Kersbergen faces the Class D felony of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child; and two misdemeanor charges of animal neglect or abandonment.

During the course of the investigation, initiated by a wellness check, an officer, whose name was redacted on a probable-cause statement issued by the prosecutor’s office, noted large amounts of trash in the foyer and stairwell area of the residence.

“I walked around the exterior of the (redacted) and observed the kitchen area through an exterior window,” the officer wrote in the statement. “Through the window, I observed the floor was nearly completely covered in animal feces.” The probable-cause affidavit stated Kersbergen owned “approximately four dogs and an unknown number of cats.”

Later, during the execution of a search warrant, the officer stated, “the air in the house was so noxious and pungent that masks had to be worn in order to breathe while inside. ... I observed fresh and old dog feces covering the floors of nearly every room in the residence. I observed one room was piled knee-high with feces, garbage and debris. The feces in the other rooms covered the floors so abundantly that it was impossible to avoid stepping in it as I moved through the residence.” Upstairs, the officer wrote that he or she found one partially cleaned room with a bed that appeared to be recently slept in.

Kersbergen has prior convictions in 2013 and 2016 of first-degree child endangerment for similar unsanitary conditions.

A $15,000 cash or surety bond was amended to $10,000 on Tuesday, Feb. 27, and Kersbergen was taken into custody. The case was assigned to Judge Alan Joseph Beussink, following a motion for change of judge issued by Thad Brady, Kersbergen’s attorney. Kersbergen has entered a plea of not guilty.