Report: County authorities knew 11 kids slept in cagelike enclosures

The children have been placed in foster homes.
CLEVELAND -- A Toledo man said he warned Huron County officials about a home where 11 special-needs children were sleeping in cagelike enclosures, more than a year before authorities removed the children.
County Prosecutor Russ Leffler confirmed the man's story but said the June 2004 date the man gave might not be accurate, The Plain Dealer reported Sunday. Leffler said he didn't know why child welfare officials didn't intervene at the house in the northern Ohio village of Wakeman until Sept. 9.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle, who are white, adopted black youngsters with ailments such as autism, fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV and pica, an eating disorder in which children compulsively eat nonfood items such as dirt and rocks.
Authorities say the couple put some of the children in homemade wooden cages -- some with alarms -- to sleep and as punishment during the day. The couple have denied harming the children, and no charges have been filed. Leffler said he intends to give the case to a grand jury Nov. 18 but needs psychological reports on the children before he can proceed.
Taken away
The children, ages 1 to 14, were taken from the Gravelles and placed in foster homes. The state is investigating the adoptions, including who placed children with the family, whether rules were followed and whether Huron County responded appropriately once the cages were discovered.
Ed Chunk, the insurance agent, told the newspaper he called the Huron County Department of Child and Family Services after visiting the Gravelles' home, where he saw the enclosures.
Erich Dumbeck, the agency's director, said that was incorrect.
"We would have acted within weeks," Dumbeck said Friday.
Interviews with adoption officials and reviews of court documents show that the Gravelles received thousands of dollars in government adoption subsidies and disability payments for the children -- $4,265 a month in 2001 when the family had eight children.
The same year, Sharen Gravelle accused her husband in court documents of mistreating the children, an allegation he denied. The couple reconciled and eventually adopted three more children.
Social worker's notes
Recently, a private social worker turned over to authorities the notes she compiled from working with the family for five years. The notes indicate deputy sheriffs came to the home several times, including one occasion a year ago in which a deputy said the Gravelles were "pioneers in working with kids like this," the social worker wrote.