Couple in caged-children case guilty of endangering, abuse

Authorities removed the 11 children in September 2005 from the Gravelle home in rural Wakeman.
NORWALK, Ohio (AP) -- A case that escalated in notoriety as photos and descriptions of the conditions of a home where some of the 11 special-needs adoptive children slept in wood and wire cages culminated Friday with the convictions of their parents on charges that they abused and endangered them.
A jury found both Michael Gravelle, 57, and his wife, Sharen, 58, guilty of four felony counts of child endangering, two misdemeanor counts of child endangering and five misdemeanor counts of child abuse. Each was acquitted of 13 charges, including four felony child endangering charges.
They showed no reaction in court and left trying to ignore a small battalion of media cameras. At one point, Sharen Gravelle stopped walking on a sidewalk and, tears welling in her eyes and her voice cracking, asked her lawyer to "get them out of my face."
As the verdicts were read in Huron County Common Pleas Court, Michael Gravelle rocked in his chair, stroking his white beard with his hand and stared at the jury. His wife looked down at the defense table and took notes.
Defense
The parents claimed during the three-week trial that they needed to keep some of the youngsters in enclosed beds rigged with alarms to protect them from their own dangerous behavior and stop them from wandering at night.
Their attorneys said an appeal is likely.
"I feel terrible," said Ken Myers, the lawyer for Sharen Gravelle. "We don't think they were guilty of any criminal offenses. They did the best they could with a very difficult situation and with very little help."
Myers and Richard Drucker, the attorney for Michael Gravelle, said the two still were trying to figure out the verdict and why the jury found the couple guilty on some charges involving caged beds, but not others.
"In many respects, the defendants could consider this a victory in that so many counts were thrown out," Drucker said.
Assistant Prosecutor Daivia Kasper said she was satisfied with the verdicts. "I had certainly hoped for felonies on behalf of all the children," she said.
The children, who suffered from problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and a disorder that involves eating nonfood items, ranged from ages1 to 14 when authorities removed them in September 2005 from the Gravelle home in rural Wakeman, about 60 miles west of Cleveland.
The youngsters were placed in foster care last fall and the couple lost custody in March.
The Gravelles could face one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of 10,000 for each felony count. The misdemeanors can result in no jail time to up to six months each. Judge Earl McGimpsey set sentencing for Feb. 12. He allowed the Gravelles to remain free on bond.
What resulted
The case prompted the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to increase its oversight of cases where there are multiple special-needs children in one home. The department also established guidelines for agency workers to visit children before adoptions are approved and added staff who make sure records are complete and correct when adoptions cross state lines, as some of the Gravelles' did.
During the three-week trial, their defense included testimony from a social worker and others who said they never witnessed abuse and said the children's behavior improved because of the cages, which were painted bright blues and reds.
Prosecutors said the couple was cruel. Witnesses including the sheriff and some of the children who said the cages were urine-stained and lacked bedding, including pillows and mattresses.
Testimony
One Gravelle child testified he was forced to live in a bathroom for 81 days, sleeping in a bathtub because of a bed-wetting problem.
The Gravelles' attorneys denied those charges, saying the boy exaggerated the length of his bathroom stay, and an expert for the defense testified that the technique helped the boy.
Other children testified during the trial that the Gravelles hit them with a wooden paddle, made them write out Bible verses as punishment and dunked the head of a girl who had Down Syndrome in a toilet.
The Gravelles did not testify. But some of the youngsters testified that they were not forced to sleep in cages and missed their adoptive parents, drawing tears from some jurors.
The Gravelles have said they took on so many needy children because no one else wanted them.
Prosecutors have suggested the couple wanted so many special-needs youngsters because of the adoption and foster care subsidies that accompanied them.