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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-12-caged-kids_x.htm?csp=34
Posted 9/12/2005 10:30 PM Updated 9/14/2005 12:09 PM
Neighbors: Kids in home with cages were polite
WAKEMAN, Ohio (AP) --
The children -- polite and well-dressed -- seemed ordinary enough
to neighbors, who hired some of them to help bale hay and saw them
playing in a yard filled with toys.
Deputies found children locked in cages without blankets and with
alarms on them Monday.
By Jim Bobel, The Morning Journal via AP
But the 11 children -- all with conditions ranging from autism
to fetal alcohol syndrome -- were far from having a normal life,
authorities said. Their adoptive parents allegedly forced
several of them to sleep in homemade cages about 3 1/2 feet high.
Michael Gravelle, 56, and Sharen Gravelle, 57, have denied
abusing or neglecting the children, who are ages 1 to 14. No
charges had been filed, and messages left with the couple's
lawyer were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Officials, who said they discovered the situation Friday, are
investigating how the adoptive parents managed to take in the
children, and why no one kept closer tabs on the youngsters. The
children have since been placed with foster families.
"I don't believe there were any case workers checking in with
this family," said Erich Dumbeck, director of the Huron County
Department of Job and Family Services.
The couple adopted the children through an assortment of
private and public agencies in different counties and states,
Dumbeck said.
Neighbors said they often saw or heard the children playing,
and the family yard was littered with toys -- plastic cars,
tricycles, slides and an overturned skateboard near a wooden
ramp.
Leah Hunter, who lives two houses away, said she often saw
the children walking down the road. "They looked OK. They
hardly ever wore shoes, but I'm a country girl and for me
that's normal," she said.
At night, authorities said, eight of the children were confined
in wooden cages stacked in bedrooms on the second floor. The
cages were painted in bright colors, and some were rigged with
alarms that would send a signal to the downstairs when the door
was opened. One cage had a dresser in front of it.
The cages, made of plywood and wiring, had mats but no pillows
or blankets. The house smelled of urine, according to the
search warrant.
The Gravelles have said a psychiatrist recommended they make the
children sleep in the cages, Huron County Prosecutor Russell
Leffler told the Norwalk Reflector. The parents also said the
children, including some who had mental disorders, needed to
be protected from each other, according to court documents.
A boy born with HIV was adopted as an infant in 2001 through
the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services,
the agency's director Jim McCafferty said. The Gravelles
receive a subsidy of at least $500 a month to care for that
child, but it was unclear how much the parents were paid for
the other children.
Payments -- a minimum of $250 a month per child if the family
qualifies for state or federal programs -- are meant to
encourage adoption by ensuring families can maintain their
standard of living, said Rhonda Abban, chief of adoption
services for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
"There's no follow up because you're giving that family the
money so they can incorporate that child into their life,"
she said.
Carmen Stewart, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Job
and Family Services, said Wednesday that state regulations
require at least two home visits by the county or a private
agency that conducted an adoption within six months of
finalization. She could not say which of the children were
adopted in Ohio and whether visits were missed.
Visits also can be ordered if there are complaints, such as the
one that led to a children's services investigator being sent
to the house Friday. The investigator saw one of the children's
faces peering out of a cage, sheriff's Lt. Randy Sommers said.
Before the infant adoption in 2001, private agencies gave the
couple "glowing reports," McCafferty said.
Sheriff's deputies were called to the home twice before in the
last five years: once to settle a neighbor dispute in 2000,
and last year when a 12-year-old boy was upset and ran away
for several hours. He was found down the road.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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