photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Joeseph Leonard Klebenstein appears at his sentencing hearing on Aug. 19, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

A man was granted probation on Monday for a methamphetamine conviction after making a deal with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office that dropped charges related to an alleged stabbing at a homeless camp.

The man, Joseph Leonard Klebenstein, 32, was originally charged with one felony count of aggravated battery, one felony count of possession of methamphetamine and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia, according to charging documents. The jail log lists Klebenstein as a homeless man from Topeka. The incident is alleged to have occurred on May 1 in a tent near the Amtrak Station at 413 E. Seventh St.

Klebenstein pleaded guilty on June 4 to the meth charge, and the DA’s office dropped the battery and paraphernalia charges. He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing that day at which police officers and the victim were scheduled to testify about the incident, but he waived that hearing to enter his plea, according to court records.

Judge Stacey Donovan sentenced Klebenstein on Monday to 34 months in prison for the meth charge, which she then suspended to 18 months of probation in accordance with Senate Bill 123, a Kansas law that under certain conditions allows for drug offenders who would normally be sentenced to prison to seek treatment while on probation instead.

Donovan said that Klebenstein was a candidate for SB 123 because he had no prior convictions for distributing or cultivating drugs, that his prior felony convictions were all low-level offenses and that a treatment facility exists that could address Klebenstein’s addiction issues.

Klebenstein’s attorney, Angelo Panas, said that Klebenstein has already completed inpatient drug treatment while waiting for the disposition of his case and will continue outpatient treatment once released.

Klebestein has been in custody on $6,000 cash or surety bond, but was transferred to a treatment facility after his plea bargain and before sentencing. He was previously convicted of felony criminal threat in Johnson County in 2019, and in Douglas County he was convicted of two counts for felony burglary and two counts of misdemeanor theft in 2012, as the Journal_World reported.

According to the affidavit in support of Klebenstein’s arrest, police responded to the area near the Amtrak station in the 800 block Pennsylvania just before midnight to a report of a woman who had been stabbed.

The woman told police that she and Klebenstein and another friend were in a tent and that she and Klebenstein got into an argument before Klebenstein stabbed her in the leg with a multitool and she fled the scene. Officers observed a knife wound on the woman’s leg just above her knee that was about a half inch deep and 4-6 inches long. The woman was immediately taken by ambulance to LMH Health for treatment, according to the affidavit.

Police later located Klebenstein near Ninth and New Hampshire streets, where he told police that the woman had cut herself on accident. Klebenstein said that he handed the woman the multitool and she tried to “improperly attempt to close the knife using one hand and her leg” resulting in the cut.

Klebenstein was taken into custody and officers found in his possession methamphetamine and a meth pipe.

The other man who was said to be in the tent was located by police in Hobbs Park, and he denied having been with Klebenstein and the woman, according to the affidavit.

An arrest affidavit is a sworn statement from an officer detailing the reasons for an arrest. Allegations in affidavits have not been proved in court.

The Journal-World had requested the affidavit shortly after the incident, but Donovan did not release the affidavit until Monday, the day she sentenced Klebenstein.