Disabled kids slept in cages
2005-09-13 20:48
Wakeman - Sheriff's deputies removed 11 disabled children from a home where some of the youngsters were made to sleep in cages less than 1m high, authorities said.
The children's adoptive parents, Mike and Sharen Gravelle, denied during a custody hearing on Monday that they'd abused or neglected the children.
No charges had been filed as of Monday night, and telephones at the county prosecutor's office repeatedly rang busy on Tuesday morning.
One official agreed that there was no sign of abuse.
"The impression that we got was that (the parents) felt it was OK," lieutenant Randy Sommers of the sheriff's Office in Huron County, Ohio, told The (Lorain) Morning Journal.
He said a baby slept in a small bed and two girls used mattresses, and the remaining children slept in the cages.
The Gravelles said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children sleep in the cages at night, County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said.
The cages, averaging about 76.2cm high, 1m wide and 1m deep, were stacked in bedrooms on the second floor of the house, officials said.
Some cages rigged with alarms
The children, ages 1 to 14, were described as having conditions that included autism and foetal alcohol syndrome.
Deputies were called on Friday by a children's services investigator who visited the home and spotted a face peering out of one of the cages, Sommers said.
The investigator was sent after the county received a complaint, said Erich Dumbeck, director of the Huron county department of job and family services. He would not say who complained.
Some of the cages were rigged with alarms, Sommers said, and one had a dresser in front of it.
One boy said he'd slept in the cage for three years, he said.
The children were placed with four foster families on Monday and were doing well, Dumbeck said.
He said he saw them hugging their new foster parents and they seemed relieved.
The family has lived in Huron County for 10 years but most of the children were adopted through other Ohio counties, and two through other states, Dumbeck said.
He said his agency was trying to determine how the adoptions originated.
"These kids were home-schooled and they lived in the country where neighbours were spread out."
Adoption subsidies
Dumbeck said it was unclear whether the Gravelles received adoption subsidies, which can range from $100 to $1 000 a month.
Dozens of toys were scattered around the yard on Tuesday.
A black potbellied pig, chickens and dogs roamed the property.
A storage shed housed seven bicycles piled on top of each other, while a box on the patio held numerous pairs of children's shoes and boots.
Sommers said there were no apparent signs the children had been malnourished or beaten, but they were sent to a hospital for examination.
- AP