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‘There’s poop everywhere’: Police react with disgust – spitting and gagging
– as child sexual abuse investigation leads to house of filth and horrors
in bodycam footage
COLIN KALMBACHER, Jul 8th, 2023, 2:24 pm
Law and Crime
Handprints of feces adorn the high wall of a bedroom shared by two children in Oklahoma.
(Stillwater Police Department)
“Handprints of s––– all over the entire room. Your feet just stick to all the s––– in there,” an officer in Oklahoma explains to other members of law enforcement. “That’s the nastiest house I’ve ever been in.”
That house, ridden with filth and more-present dangers to human life, was recently discovered amid a child sexual abuse investigation. Now, three adults are facing child neglect and sexual assault charges.
This week, Law&Crime obtained body-worn camera footage documenting the inside of the residence in Stillwater, in the Sooner State, where three children were recently able to escape.
“The foul odor inside was unbearable,” Stillwater Police Detective Sgt. Sherae LeJeune wrote in an affidavit filed late last month. “The air was thick and musty, which made breathing difficult. We could not complete the walk-through without taking breaks outside for fresh air. I noticed there actually was carpet in the living room. It was saturated with so much urine and feces and walked all over that it was smashed down to a hard surface. My boots stuck to the flooring.”
The footage continues to show the inside of the doublewide trailer; a cat scurries across the floor; a sheet is tacked to a wall, and household objects are piled up among the common rooms. And then, an officer opens the door to a child’s bedroom.
Trails of feces can be seen smeared all over various walls – high, low, and in-between. A pink-and-purple Minnie Mouse sheet is tacked up in the bedroom – covering a massive hole in the drywall. A series of smaller holes are also visible. A dog can be heard whinnying off-camera.
“There were no toys in the room,” the affidavit says. “The walls were smeared with feces. It was obvious the children smeared the feces because of the size of the handprints. Some of the smears reached up to the ceiling on the west wall.”
Authorities say the room was shared by a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy.
Steven Zackariah Kittle, 35, was arrested in March on one count of child sexual abuse. In June, he was charged with two counts of child neglect. His wife, Lindsey Nichole Pratt, 26, and his mother, Robin Jean Kittle, 59, were each arrested on three counts of child neglect.
In another clip provided to Law&Crime by the SPD, Kittle is arrested on the sexual assault charge. The defendant’s mouth goes agape as the arresting officer explains why he is being handcuffed.
According to police, Steven Kittle admitted during a later interview with two detectives that he sexually assaulted the 4-year-old girl while the 1-year-old boy watched, on multiple occasions, in January.
In the footage, one of the officers responds to a complaint about law enforcement harming the carpet inside the ramshackle residence.
“Is this what you’re talking about, cleaning up the carpet?” the officer says in response. “I mean, there’s poop everywhere.”
The video shows an officer, at one point, rushing out of the home – graphically spitting and gagging due to the unbearable smell.
Officers with the SPD were originally investigating the child sexual assault claim against Steven Kittle. That investigation led an SPD officer and a state child welfare agent to visit the family’s trailer. There, authorities said they found three children, three adults, six dogs, and three cats living in wretched squalor.
The children were taken into the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
“Their social and verbal skills were lacking for their ages,” the sergeant wrote in her affidavit, saying the two older children “communicated by pointing and grunting.”
“They still used pull-ups and were not potty-trained due to no guidance and inconsistent access to a bathroom,” the affidavit went on. “They showed signs of nutritional deficiencies and food scarcity. [The youngest child] had deformities in both legs, and a dead roach was removed from her ear canal.”
Steven Kittle is detained on $150,000 bond in the Payne County Jail. He has a preliminary hearing slated for Aug. 31. His wife and mother were being detained on $30,000 bond.
Son of father accused of sexually abusing adopted sons,
charged with sexual assault of sibling
By Mycah Hatfield KTRK
Monday, July 24, 2023 5:36PM
Avshalom Cohen is now charged with the alleged sexual abuse of younger adoptive siblings months after his father was arrested for abusing six sons.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Months after a 39-year-old man was charged with several counts of sexually abusing his adopted sons, his eldest son was also charged with sexual assault of a younger sibling.
Avshalom Cohen, 22, is charged in Harris County with two counts of sexual assault. Both counts list the same victim.
Avshalom is Hayim Cohen's eldest adopted son. Hayim Cohen is facing 11 charges of sexual misconduct with six of his nine adopted boys.
28 arrested, 19 children rescued after months-long operation
targeting child sex abuse on internet in Montgomery County
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – More than 20 people were charged and 19 children who had been sexually abused or exploited were rescued during a months-long operation targeting the distribution of child sexual abuse materials on the internet, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
A total of 28 people from 17 states were charged with crimes related to the sexual exploitation of children.
Over the last 12 months, detectives with the Montgomery County division of the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force monitored chat groups on a popular social media app. The suspects were identified as participants in various group chats dedicated to distributing child sexual abuse material. Authorities said most of the suspects posted illicit images to the groups, and some of them were deemed administrators of the groups and controlled who could access the groups.
Utilizing advanced investigative techniques, detectives were able to identify and locate the individuals involved, even though they were from other states. Detectives worked with authorities in those states to arrest the suspects.
Operation: Hydra was spearheaded by the Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office, along with the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. The operation was supported by Montgomery County Constables’ Offices Precinct 2, Precinct 3, Precinct 4 and Precinct 5, the Conroe Police Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshalls Service, and the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
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‘An evil thing’: Couple accused of chaining 18-year-old to bed,forcing her to have sex during month-long kidnapping
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – A man and woman have been charged with kidnapping after an 18-year-old woman was allegedly chained and zip-tied inside of a house for one month and sexually assaulted in north Harris County, according to Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.
Jose Reyes, 31, and Jaqueline Macias, 29, were arrested in the 6900 block of Foxmont Lane. A hearing officer set his bond at $100,000 and hers at $50,000 on Monday afternoon.
Deputies initially said the teen met Reyes, who gained her trust, and lured her to his house while Macias was there.
After additional interviews Monday, the investigation revealed that the 18-year-old moved to the home to further a relationship with Reyes, but once she got there and realized he was in a relationship with another woman, she tried to leave, a Precinct 4 source told KPRC 2.
That’s when she was allegedly held captive for approximately 30 days and sexually abused repeatedly. According to court documents, she was chained to a bed and forced to have sex.
When Reyes and Macias left briefly on Sunday night, the teen found a way to get out of her restraints, climb through a bedroom window and escape.
She knocked on the doors of houses in the neighborhood, until she got the attention of a neighbor who called 911. Deputies and the paramedics were called.
The suspects returned to the house about 10 minutes later and were arrested, Herman said. He called the case an “evil thing.”
“She did everything that she could, all her fibers she could bring to her strength to get out of her restraints,” he said.
Macias’ public defender said in court on Monday that she and Reyes share a 2-week-old child. As a bond condition, the hearing officer removed the no contact order between the two suspects.
Pending medical tests, more charges are possible against the suspects.
Both are expected back in court on Tuesday.
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