Jun 12, 2014 4 min read

Three members of a Monongahela family were arrested Thursday and a warrant was issued for a fourth after city police twice found a 6-year-old autistic boy wearing only a dirty diaper wandering in traffic earlier this week.

Celeste J. Bohnak, 36, Felicia Marie Bohnak, 20, and John Anthony Matalik, 51, all of 404 Fourth St., were arraigned before District Judge Mark Wilson on child endangerment charges. Celeste Bohnak and Matalik are identified in court documents as the boy’s parents. Felicia Bohnak is identified as the boy’s sister.

A warrant also was issued for the boy’s grandmother, Pamela Bohnak, 62, also of 404 Fourth St., on the same charge.

Police were called about 3:25 p.m. Monday for a report of a boy in a diaper walking near the intersection of Main and Fourth streets, a busy intersection in the city’s business district. A witness got him off the street until police arrived. The boy could not tell the witness where he lived and seemed unable to talk.

Officer Roderic Henson saw the boy was filthy and his diaper was sagging and looked to be full.

The boy was unable to answer questions.

The officer drove about two blocks up Fourth Street when Matalik came out of the house at 404 Fourth. When Henson asked Matalik if he was missing anyone or anything, Matalik reportedly responded “no.” Matalik then looked in the back of the cruiser and told Henson that was his son and he was unaware the boy left the house.

The boy’s grandmother, Pamela Bohnak, came out of the house and told Henson they usually chain the doors.

Police said she smelled of alcohol.

Henson told them he would be contacting Washington County Children and Youth Services about the incident.

About 12:35 p.m. Tuesday, Officer William Fusco was on patrol near the intersection of Fourth and Chess Street when he spotted the boy in traffic wearing only a diaper. The boy then ran into McDonald’s restaurant, 301 W. Main, after almost being hit by a vehicle.

Fusco drove the boy back home. When the officer pulled in front of the boy’s house, the 6-year-old started screaming and would not get out of the car. As Fusco was trying to get the boy out, Celeste Bohnak opened the front door, yelled obscenities and slammed the door shut.

Felicia Bohnak came out and told the officer the door was locked and they did not know how the boy got out. When Fusco told her the same thing happened the previous day, she responded, “He has problems, can’t you see that?” and uttered expletives.

Fusco told her CYS was being notified and while talking with the CYS caseworker, Celeste Bohnak told the officer she left the boy in the care of her daughter.

Police previously received reports from neighbors the boy would open a second-floor window and climb on the roof.

No information was available on whether the boy was taken into custody by CYS.

This is at least the third time Celeste Bohnak and Matalik have been charged with allowing their son to wander unsupervised in their neighborhood while wearing only a diaper. In 2011, Matalik was placed in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program and she was placed on the Intermediate Punishment Program after they were arrested by Donora police.

She pleaded guilty to a third charge of child endangerment in 2012 and was sentenced to 6 to 18 months in jail, but the confinement was revoked, according to court documents. Details of that incident were not immediately available.

Celeste and Felicia Bohnak, who was also cited for disorderly conduct, were each placed in Washington County jail on $10,000 bond while Matalik is incarcerated on $5,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for July 10 before Wilson.