MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- Cockroaches, gnats, cat feces and an "extremely dirty" toilet were among the "horrible" conditions that forced Ohio officers to remove eight children from a home Monday night, according to a police report.
Officers went to the boarded-up house in Middletown to check on the children's well being, the police report stated. Anthony Gevedon Sr. came out onto a porch and tried to close the door behind him, the report states, but one officer blocked the door.
Through a gap in the doorway, the officer saw the floor and stairs were covered in debris, according to the report.
Gevedon didn't want to let the officers inside because conditions were "horrible," the report states, but eventually agreed when told he could be charged with obstructing official business.
Inside, the officers found piles of mildewed clothing, open food containers and trash, according to the report.
Upstairs, bedrooms didn't have blankets, sheets or pillows, the report states. Standing water ran from a bathroom out into the hallway, and the bathroom floor had "a black sludge type material," according to the police report.
A stove in the kitchen "was covered in a thick black substance," the report states. "It was missing three of the four burners." Water flowed from the upstairs bathroom into the kitchen through a hole in the ceiling, according to the police report.
The family had very little food, if any of it was edible, in the house, the report states.
Gevedon told officers he was working to clean up the home but that the family was short on money.
Officers contacted a grandmother and arranged for Butler County Children's Services to take all eight children to the grandmother's home.
Anthony Gevedon Sr. and the children's mother, Katina Gevedon, were arrested and taken to the Middletown City Jail. Both face eight counts of child endangering and are scheduled for arraignment Wednesday morning, according to court records. Neither had an attorney listed in court records Tuesday night.
