Parents accused of treating adopted kids 'worse than prisoners of war.' What to know

A couple is accused of treating their five adopted children “worse than prisoners of war” at their Batavia Township home, prosecutors said.

Matthew and Charles Edmonson are each facing several felony child endangering charges in Clermont County Common Pleas Court after being indicted Tuesday.

Here’s what to know about the charges, how the abuse was uncovered and where the couple's court cases stand now.

Sexual assault investigation uncovers evidence of further abuse, officials say

The children, who were all biologically related but adopted by the Edmonsons, were first brought to the married couple as foster children, prosecutors said.

Authorities first became aware of the Edmonsons after a sexual assault was reported to the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office in August 2022.

Investigators interviewed the juvenile victim, another of the Edmonsons’ adopted children, witnesses and collected cellphones and video surveillance, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

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Officials said the Edmonsons refused to cooperate with the investigation and didn’t consent to deputies accessing the electronics and surveillance footage, leading detectives to worry about the well-being of the couple’s other adopted children.

Charles Edmonson, 63, was indicted on sexual battery charges in October 2023. In court filings, prosecutors said he had numerous sexual encounters with his adopted son between January 2020 and August 2022.

Court records show he was convicted in March of two gross sexual imposition counts and sentenced to three years in prison.

Adoptive father’s cellphone holds evidence of abuse

The remaining five children were removed from the couple’s home in February as part of a joint investigation between the sheriff’s office and Clermont County Children’s Protective Services.

After collaborating with the Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center, detectives unlocked data from Charles Edmonson’s cellphone and uncovered videos showing the children being abused and neglected, the sheriff’s office said.

"The videos of these undernourished and naked children huddled up in a locked room in the basement, on the stone-cold basement floor like a pile of puppies trying to stay together to keep warm, are nothing short of gut-wrenching," Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve said in a statement.

Prosecutors also said the children had been in and out of the hospital for various reasons, including bruising, bleach burns and possible internal bleeding − symptoms that were all explained away by their adoptive parents.

What happens next?

Court records show the children’s adoptive mother, 49-year-old Matthew Edmonson, was arraigned Wednesday and is currently being held at the Clermont County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

She’s expected to appear in court again on July 10 for a pretrial hearing before Judge Richard Ferenc.

A prosecutor's office spokesperson told The Enquirer on Thursday that it remains unclear when Charles Edmonson will make his first court appearance.

He’s incarcerated at the Noble Correctional Institution, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections records show.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Clermont County parents accused of abusing 5 adopted children