5-day custody hearing closes; family awaits judge's decision

Neither parent testified, and a social worker for the family discredited a child.
NORWALK, Ohio (AP) -- A five-day custody hearing provided an exhaustive look into a family accused of harming 11 adopted children by making some of them sleep with only blankets in wooden cages. Now a judge must decide whether the couple abused or neglected the special-needs children.
Juvenile Judge Timothy Cardwell is expected to make a decision in two weeks. If the allegations are not proved, Michael and Sharen Gravelle, who live near rural Wakeman in northern Ohio, could regain custody.
"They're about upbeat as you can possibly be," their attorney, Kenneth Myers, said Saturday. "This was a very rough week for everybody. It was long. It was grueling. There were some difficult gut-wrenching things said in open court. There are things that family members shouldn't have to hear about other family members."
Social worker's perspective
The hearing concluded Saturday with Elaine Thompson, a social worker hired by the Gravelles, saying she approved of the cages but never asked the children how they felt about them during her weekly counseling sessions with them.
"You didn't talk to the children about these beds?" asked Huron County Juvenile Prosecutor Jennifer DeLand during her cross examination.
"No," Thompson said.
"You never reported these beds to anybody?" DeLand asked.
"No," Thompson said.
Thompson previously testified that she recoiled when she first saw the cages but decided that the enclosed beds were necessary for the children's safety.
She described the unruly behavior of the children, which included urinating and defecating throughout the house and out windows. Some of the children were physically abusive to the others, she said.
The 11 children, ages 1 to 15, have health and behavioral problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and a disorder in which children eat nonfood items.
The Gravelles have not been charged with any crime and deny abusing the children.
The hearing ended without testimony from the Gravelles. Myers said he decided not to put them on the witness stand because their children were upset about hearing their public statements earlier in the week, Myers said.
He said he was also told by the judge that if the hearing didn't conclude Saturday, they would have to wait until February to continue it.
"I want the judge to make a decision quickly so that we can either move on to the next step or so these kids can come home," he said.
The children slept in cages with alarms that would go off if the children got out of them at night.
Huron County assistant public defender Doug Clifford set one of the alarms off during his cross-examination of Thompson, causing some people in the courtroom to jump at the shrill noise.
"It is not a pleasant sound," Thompson testified. "But if I had to make the choice of an alarm or being physically abused by a sibling, I would choose the alarm."
Child's testimony
A school-age Gravelle child testified Thursday that the couple forced him to stay in his "box" for up to two weeks for taking peanut butter, bread and cereal from the kitchen.
He said another time he was forced to live in the bathroom for urinating in his enclosed bed. He also said that he liked them as parents and felt safe in their home.
Thompson testified that the boy only slept in the bathtub, which helped improve his problem of wetting the bed.
Thompson, who testified for nearly eight hours, discredited much of the boy's testimony, including that the parents shoved the heads of two children into the toilet as punishments.
She blamed the boy's lying on reactive attachment disorder, which impairs children from forming relationships and developing a conscience.
"RAD children, when confronted with inappropriate behavior and choices, will go for the lie," she said.
Two psychologists hired by the county testified earlier that none of the Gravelle children has reactive attachment disorder, which is extremely rare.