Cage kids: Victim testifies

2005-12-09 09:23

Norwalk - A boy whose parents were accused of making their special-needs adopted children sleep in cages testified that the couple forced him to live in the bathroom as punishment for urinating in his enclosed bed.

The boy said at the juvenile court custody hearing that on another occasion, Sharen and Michael Gravelle forced him to stay in his "box" for up to two weeks for taking peanut butter, bread and cereal from the kitchen.

He said: "I couldn't come out of my room until I wrote the whole book of Deuteronomy. I was up there for like a month."

The boy said he had grown tired of his box, but was ambivalent after asked whether he preferred being with the Gravelles or in a foster home.

Fetal alcohol syndrome

He said: "It doesn't matter. There's no sense getting comfortable at any place."

The Gravelles were trying to regain custody of the 11 children, aged one to 15, who had problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV and a disorder in which children ate dirt.

The children were removed from the home in September, after a child-services investigator visited the home and examined the chicken-wire cages.

The Gravelles, who had not been charged with any crime, said the enclosures with alarms were meant to protect youngsters with behavioural problems.

Behavioural problems

Sharen Gravelle shook her head "no" frequently during his testimony and had said the children had lied to investigators.

Psychologist William Benninger, who was hired by the county and interviewed five of the children, testified that the cages could worsen the children's behavioural problems.

He indicated each of the five children expressed dislike for the cages, but added that some said positive things about the Gravelle home.

Under cross-examination, Benninger said the children he interviewed were "doing pretty well".

Asked whether that was because of the care the children received from the Gravelles or because they no longer lived in the couple's home, Benninger replied: "Both would have to contribute".

Cross-examination

The boy who testified on Thursday didn't look at his parents after he entered the courtroom, but smiled slightly after prosecutor Jennifer DeLand asked him to point to them.

Under cross-examination from the Gravelles' attorney, Kenneth Myers, the boy said he didn't know whether he loved his parents, but said: "I like them. They're good parents".

Asked by Myers if he missed the Gravelles, the boy said: "In some ways yes, in some ways no".

He indicated that he felt safe at the gravelles' house and missed his siblings while in foster care.

The boy admitted lying often when he was younger and being violent and abusive toward his siblings.

In earlier testimony, the boy said most of his brothers and sisters slept on wood with blankets, but no pillows or mattresses in the cages.

- AP