OH - Michael & Sharen Gravelle for child abuse, Clarksfield Twp, 2005

mysteriew

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Eleven children ages 1 to 14 were found locked in cages in the garage of their Ohio home, the Huron County sheriff says.

Officials said all the children were either adopted or foster children. The parents have not been arrested, but the prosecutor is reviewing the case.
http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4963962/detail.html
 
Why are they waiting to lock those "parents" up in cages?!:behindbar
 
This angers me! What are they waiting for before making an arrest? Did these people adopt kids for the money and to have personal slaves?
 
How to people like this pass the screening for fostering or adoption??

and 11 of them? there should be a maximum number of kids per household.
 
These people need to be put behind bars immediately. What kind of crazed human being does something like this?
 
Wakeman- Sheriff's deputies found 11 children locked in cages less than 3½ feet high inside a Huron County house, officials said. But a couple at the house denied they had abused or neglected the children.

The children, ranging in age from 1 to 14, slept in nine cages stacked two-high on the house's second story, according to the Huron County Sheriff's Office. They had no blankets or pillows, and the cages were rigged with alarms that sounded if the cages were opened, Lt. Randy Sommers said.

The children told authorities they slept in the cages at night. Doors to some of the cages were blocked with heavy furniture. One of the boys said he had slept in a cage for three years, Sommers said.
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1126614631275820.xml?nohio&coll=2
 
The children's adoptive and foster parents, Mike and Sharen Gravelle, denied that they'd abused or neglected the children during a custody hearing Monday in Huron County. No charges had been filed as of Monday night.

"The impression that we got was that they felt it was OK," said Lt. Randy Sommers of the Huron County Sheriff's Office. The Gravelles said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children - ages 1 to 14, with conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome - sleep in the cages at night.
Some of the cages were rigged with alarms, Sommers said; others had heavy furniture blocking their doors. The children didn't have blankets or pillows.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20050913/D8CJ9FP00.html


Yeah, I'd like to know who this "psychiatrist" is, if the person even exists - so they can lock this person up too.
You've got to be kidding me that these people have yet to be arrested, jailed and charged!!!!!
 
mysteriew said:
From mysteriew:

The children told authorities they slept in the cages at night. Doors to some of the cages were blocked with heavy furniture. One of the boys said he had slept in a cage for three years, Sommers said.
http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1126614631275820.xml?nohio&coll=2
I suggest no TRIAL, Just:behindbar :behindbar :behindbar :behindbar for the remainder of their long life.

Scraps of food, once a day feedings, and no exercise.

Yes,-- what kind of system does not check out people before they adopt or foster children! I think we have seen a couple of cases such as this one above but not to this extent. Sick......................

Gozgals
 
One of the questions I would have would be about the foster children. Children who are in foster care, are normally supposed to be checked and monitored regularly. I read in one of the articles that the children were placed in the home by an agency outside of Huron Cty. I am thinking that this is one of those "slip through the cracks" cases where the kids were placed there by one agency, the other agency was supposed to do the monitoring and didn't for some reason. Just a guess, I would expect more info will come out today.
As far as why no charges have been filed yet, I suspect that is because the kids have been removed and are no longer in danger, the Gravelles are probably not considered a risk to the public, so prosecution may feel there is now no hurry for the arrest and will do it as quickly as they can fit it into their scedule. Meanwhile kids can be getting medical care (and further investigation). Again just a guess.
 
And a neighbor recently reported seeing the children working long hours in the family's yard, he said.

The children were placed with four foster families Monday.

A woman who identified herself as Sharen Gravelle's mother but refused to give her name said the children were happy and loved. "This year they have played and had fun and laughed like no other children have, which they have never been able to do," she said

Sommers said there were no apparent signs the children had been malnourished or beaten, but they were sent to a hospital for examination. Their conditions were not available Monday.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1121440&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

"Basically, the parents thought they were providing for the protection of the children from themselves and from each other," said Sommers.

"They thought there was circumstances with these children that warranted the cages at night," Sommers added, but he would not go into details of what those circumstances were.

All 11 of the children found in the home have been placed in the custody of the Huron County Department of Children and Families.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/12/caged.children/index.html?section=cnn_latest
 
Mike and Sharen Gravelle denied in a custody hearing Monday that they'd abused or neglected the children — ages 1 to 14, with conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome. No charges had been filed as of Monday night, and telephones at the county prosecutor's office repeatedly rang busy Tuesday morning.

The children were placed with four foster families Monday and were doing well, said Erich Dumbeck, director of the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services. He said he saw them hugging their new foster parents.

The Gravelles invited a Job and Family Services investigator inside Friday when he stopped by their house outside Wakeman, a city of roughly 1,000 people about 50 miles west of Cleveland.

The investigator spotted a face peering out of one of the cages and alerted authorities, Sommers said. Deputies returned to the house that evening.

The investigator was sent after the county department received a complaint last week. Dumbeck would not say who notified the agency.

None of the children were adopted through Huron County although the family has lived there for 10 years. Most were adopted through other Ohio counties, and two through other states, Dumbeck said, declining to identify the locations. He said his agency was trying to determine how the adoptions originated.

"I don't believe there were any case workers checking in with this family," he said. "These kids were home schooled and they lived in the country where neighbors were spread out."

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/...1440119640.xml&storylist=cleveland&thispage=2
 
One official agreed that there was no sign of abuse.

"The impression that we got was that (the parents) felt it was OK," Lt. Randy Sommers of the Huron County Sheriff's Office 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.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050913/ap_on_re_us/caged_children_11

NewsChannel5 obtained the search warrant issued after a social worker visited the home Friday.

Jo Johnson said she observed cages on the first and second floors of the home on St. John Road in Clarksfield Township near Wakeman.

According to the warrant, the parents, Sharon and Mike Gravelle, said that 9 of the 11 kids, ages 1 to 14, were frequently caged for their own protection. The cages are 2 and feet high and 3 feet long. The document said the there was no room for the kids to stand up.

It also said that a large dresser cabinet was blocking two metal and wooden cages that had kids inside at the time of the visit.

Johnson said that there was a strong urine smell coming from the home and there was no bedding inside the cages. They contained small rubber mats for the kids to lie on.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/wews/20050913/lo_wews/2933702
 
Jeana (DP) said:
I think it would be a damn good idea if they went ahead and brought some charges already!

I thought for sure that they would bring charges today, but not only did they not bring charges- their phones seem to be ringing busy when media tries to call them.
 
mysteriew said:
I thought for sure that they would bring charges today, but not only did they not bring charges- their phones seem to be ringing busy when media tries to call them.


Maybe those ringing telephones is the public demanding that they DO something about this. Its inhumane and I wouldn't leave my dog caged up like that much less children. There's absolutely NO excuse for leaving a child in a cage at any time. What if a fire had broken out?
 
Jeana (DP) said:
I think it would be a damn good idea if they went ahead and brought some charges already!

No chit! What are they waiting on??? :furious: Put them in cages already. :furious:
 
This is so outrageous that it boggles the imagination. Can you even imagine how uncomfortable a 3' long cage would be to a 14 year old? Geez. And can the authorities please explain to me why, if there was no apparent neglect, these children didn't have bedding of any kind? Or why they were in the cages during the day when people visited the home? It sounds like the adoptive/foster parents are the ones who need to be caged because it sounds like they were running a kennel.
 
From this evening's news- and I have looked and haven't found an article on it yet- it seems that the home had electric, downstairs. But upstairs where the cages were- no electric.
 
These people can only be labeled as 'MONSTERS'. They need a visit in the local jail along with anyone who gave them custody of these children. This seems utterly impossible. Why didn't a family member know what was going on? Why didn't neighbors hear these children? Theres a long list of people who need to be investigated and find out the big "WHY".
 
Beyond Belief said:
These people can only be labeled as 'MONSTERS'. They need a visit in the local jail along with anyone who gave them custody of these children. This seems utterly impossible. Why didn't a family member know what was going on? Why didn't neighbors hear these children? Theres a long list of people who need to be investigated and find out the big "WHY".

They lived in a rural area with no near neighbors, they had quit attending their church and had set up a "church" in their house. The kids were homeschooled.
The so called mother's mother (lol adoptive grandmother) has stated for the media that the kids were well cared for, and were doing great.
FWIW someone did make a call. The CPS worker who went there that day, was there in response to a call that Children's services had recieved.
 

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