This is odd......no charges filed yet, but I am anxious to see what they make of all this. Crazy! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9319446/ Eleven kids found in cages in home Couple denies abusing or neglecting children Updated: 12:39 a.m. ET Sept. 13, 2005 WAKEMAN, Ohio - Sheriff’s deputies found 11 children locked in cages less than 3½ feet high inside a home, but a couple denied they had abused or neglected the children. A judge on Monday put the children — who range in age from 1 to 14 and who have various disabilities, including autism — in foster homes. The children were found in nine cages built into the walls of the house near this small city in northern Ohio, according to the Huron County Sheriff’s Office. They had no blankets or pillows, and the cages were rigged with alarms that sounded if opened, Lt. Randy Sommers said. The children told authorities they slept in the cages — 40 inches high and 40 inches deep — at night. Doors to some of the cages were blocked with heavy furniture. Sharen and Mike Gravelle are adoptive or foster parents for all 11 children, officials said. Prosecutors were reviewing the case, but no charges had been filed as of Monday night. A children’s services investigator saw one of the children in a cage Friday, Sommers said. The sheriff’s office obtained a warrant and returned to the house that evening and removed the children. The Gravelles do not have a listed telephone number. A woman who identified herself as Sharen Gravelle’s mother but would not give her name said the children were happy in their new home. “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. At a hearing, the judge placed the children in the custody of the Department of Job and Family Services, and officials placed them in four foster homes, said county Juvenile Court Administrator Chris Mushett. Appearing with a lawyer at the hearing, the Gravelles denied they had abused or neglected the children. County Prosecutor Russell Leffler said the Gravelles claimed a psychiatrist recommended they place the children in cages. The couple were reserved when deputies arrived at the house to remove the children, Sommers said. “The impression that we got was that they felt it was OK,” he said. Investigators believe nine of the children slept in the cages that were stacked two-high on the house’s second story. Two mattresses on a bedroom floor also showed signs of recent use, Sommers said. One of the boys said he’d slept in the cage for three years, Sommers said. Wakeman, with a population of about 1,000, is some 50 miles west of Cleveland. © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
What I am trying to understand is, how does a couple adopt so many children, and then not be checked on frequently? One child says he's slept in the cage for 3 years!?!!? There's something very wrong with the system.
Damn.. that's sad. We have people here in the US that would love to have kids but cant... yet we have people like this that have too many of them..
Well these were adopted and foster children. Many folks who can't have children are free to foster orphans like this couple did. Unless they want to put them in cages.
Those low-life pieces of scum were probably taking as many kids as they could just for the money (that they're supposed to be supporting them with). But having the cages built into the house? Stacked up like in a dog kennel? Like some of you said, where were the authorities? And who lets one couple have that many kids anyway, especially disabled ones (who require special care, not that they were probably getting it)? Aside from a few exceptional individuals, most couldn't handle that. I wonder if our system just finds a place for these kids and then forgets about them.
This is freakin' sad...A little off the subject, but i was watching wife swap last night and this kid gets locked in his roomed every night...I thought that was pathetic until I saw this...
there ya go. i'm sure an unintentional underlying message there, but i see no need to move this to d&d. point of this thread is that there's a lot of sick phocks out there.
OK, I'm lost with that one.. I stay out of the D&D for a reason, I never thought I came off as "ONE OF THOSE POSTERS" I really didnt mean anything else by it, just from what I understand it's not an easy process to adopt a child.. I have a uncle who along with his wife tried and it was one of the hardest things they have had to do in their life (from what I understand), but well worth it..
