AP News, December 23rd, 2006
A couple accused of forcing some of their 11 adopted special-needs children to sleep in wood and wire cages were convicted Friday of endangerment and abuse.
Sharen Gravelle and her husband, Michael, showed no reaction in the courtroom as the guilty verdicts were read. The jury convicted both of four felony counts of child endangering and seven misdemeanor counts. Each was acquitted of 13 charges, including four felony child endangering charges.
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.
Fighting back tears on the courthouse steps, her voice cracking, Sharen Gravelle asked her lawyer to get a small battalion of media cameras "out of my face."
Their attorneys said an appeal is likely.
"I feel terrible," said Ken Myers, the lawyer for Sharen Gravelle, 58. "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, 57, said they were still trying to figure out why the jury found the couple guilty of 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.
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 in age from 1 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.
Margaret Kern, a court-appointed advocate for the children, was delighted with the outcome. "Finally, it was a long time coming, but justice has been served for these children," Kern said.
The youngsters are doing well in foster homes, she said.
Jurors declined to comment.
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 and allowed the Gravelles to remain free on bond.
During the three-week trial, their defense included testimony from a social worker and others who said that they never witnessed abuse and that the children's behavior improved because of the bright blue and red cages.
Prosecutors said the couple were cruel. Witnesses, including the sheriff and some of the children, said the cages were urine-stained and lacked pillows or mattresses.
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 said the boy exaggerated the length of his bathroom stay, and an expert for the defense testified that the technique helped the boy.
The Gravelles have said they took on so many needy children because no one else wanted them. Prosecutors have suggested the couple was after the subsidies that accompanied them.
