Children services director denies getting '03 report of cages in home
Sielicki, Jim. Toledo Blade, Dec. 9, 2006, pg. A1.
NORWALK, Ohio - The head of the agency that oversaw the care of the foster and adopted children of Michael and Sharen Gravelle testified yesterday that he does not recall hearing about the children being housed in cages before his staff removed them from the rural Huron County home in September, 2005, despite a meeting with a care-giver in 2003 who complained about conditions he saw there.
Last week, respite care worker Carlyle Smith testified that David Broehl, director of Huron County's children services agency, was present at an Oct. 28, 2003, meeting during which he discussed the cages and other concerns he had about the family.
"If cages were mentioned ... I did not hear that, which makes me think I was not there at the time," Mr. Broehl said.
He said that his agency began looking into a report of cages at the Gravelle home in August, 2005, a month before the 11 adopted Gravelle children were removed.
He said the Huron County Department of Job and Family Services began its investigation after an insurance investigator raised concerns about the cages, which he saw during an insurance inspection at the home.
Mr. Broehl testified that at the 2003 meeting with Mr. Smith, a respite-care worker with Comfort Keepers of Norwalk, Mr. Smith complained about how the Gravelles disciplined their children. But Mr. Broehl said Mr. Smith did not raise the issue of cages in the home.
"That word [cages], I did not hear," Mr. Broehl said. "It's a very strong word. ... If he would have mentioned it, we would have investigated."
In his Dec. 1 testimony, Mr. Smith said Comfort Keepers sent him to the Gravelle home to decide whether he would be compatible with the children before he was hired. The county pays for respite care.
After he left the Gravelle home, Mr. Smith called his boss, who set up the meeting with child-welfare agency officials to discuss what Mr. Smith testified was "emotional and mental" abuse of the children.
Mr. Broehl testified under cross-examination that he and his top investigator, Brian Lindsey, did not hear "anything that would rise to an investigation."
He said Mr. Smith appeared concerned about how "harsh" the Gravelles were when disciplining their children and their "strong religious focus."
Also under cross-examination, the agency director said he found nothing in the children services files regarding a complaint from a neighbor.
On Tuesday, Laurie Oney told the court she filed two complaints with the agency.
She said the first complaint, in 2001, stemmed from the Gravelles forcing a child to sleep in the bathtub because he wet the bed.
Mrs. Oney said she filed a second complaint a year later after visiting the Gravelle home and seeing Mrs. Gravelle hit a child on the back of the legs with a shortened broom handle.
"There is nothing in our records about that," Mr. Broehl testified.
After the children were removed from the home on Sept. 9, 2005, Mr. Broehl said he read the entire Gravelle file, including notes from the meeting with Comfort Keepers.
About three months after the meeting with Comfort Keepers, Mr. Broehl and Suzie Sidell, who arranges for adoptions and foster care, visited the home to discuss other possibilities for respite care.
Mr. Broehl said they did not take the notes from that meeting with them. Nor did they ask to see other parts of the home beyond the dining room where they met the family, he said.
"Carlyle Smith was not on your radar screen?" asked defense attorney Kenneth Myers. "No sir," Mr. Broehl replied.
The children services agency leader admitted that he too was "uncomfortable" with how the Gravelles were raising the children during two visits with the Gravelles. But he said he did not see signs of abuse nor hear the parents call the adopted children, who are black, "monkeys," as Mr. Smith testified last week.
Later, Mr. Broehl testified that the agency began laying the groundwork for removing the children shortly after opening its investigation. Things came to a head on Sept. 9, 2005, when caseworker Jo Ellen Johnson went to the home to check on the reports of cages.
After leaving, she called her supervisor, who in turn alerted the Huron County Sheriff's Office, which obtained a search warrant that day. The children were removed that evening and placed in foster care. Since that time, the Gravelles' adoption rights have been terminated.
Columbus psychologist William Benninger, who saw five of the Gravelle children after they were removed from the home, testified yesterday about the potential of emotional harm the children suffered by being forced to sleep in cages.
He provided an assessment of each child he counseled. He said he found evidence of adjustment disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other emotional issues.
He said a substantial risk to their stability existed because of their "seriously stressful circumstances" in the home.
"Yes, it likely would be a significant influence on their well-being," he told Prosecutor Russ Leffler. "Being in cages would contribute to long-term emotional difficulties."
During his interviews with the children, Mr. Benninger said, some of them expressed strong feelings about sleeping in the cages.
Mr. Myers and fellow defense attorney Richard Drucker objected strenuously to allowing Mr. Benninger's testimony to be given, contending he was not qualified to give an opinion about the children's long-term outlook.
Judge Earl McGimpsey sent the jury out of the courtroom and researched the issue. After a lengthy recess, the judge cited three cases that supported the prosecution and allowed the psychologist to testify.
Mr. Benninger testified in the juvenile court proceedings a year ago. He is scheduled to return to court for cross-examination on Tuesday, when the trial resumes for its third week of testimony.
The Gravelles are charged with 16 counts of felony child endangering and eight misdemeanor child endangering charges.
If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined $10,000 on each felony charge.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Gravelles hosed children down outside in cold weather
2 boys, 2 girls back siblings' testimony in 'caged' trial
Sielicki, Jim. Toledo Lade, Dec. 8, 2006, pg. B1.
NORWALK, Ohio - Four of the younger adopted children of Sharen and Michael Gravelle testified about life in the Gravelle home yesterday, painting different pictures about how they were treated, while corroborating testimony of their older siblings given the previous day.
One boy said he was kept in a cage and once received a bloody nose when his father pushed his head while he was in the bathtub during a bath. The children - two boys and two girls - also talked about being hosed down outside the house.
The defense portrayed a different life at the northern Huron County home, showing the jury family pictures of happy children and asking children about gifts they got on their birthdays.
The Gravelles are being tried on 16 counts of felony child endangering and eight mis-demeanor child endangering charges. If convicted, they face one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count.
The children ranged in age from 1 to 14 when authorities removed them in September, 2005, from the rural home near Wakeman, about 60 miles east of Toledo. One girl testified that she was allowed to sleep in a bed, but an alarm was on her bedroom door.
She confirmed that the Gravelles had birthday parties for her and some of her siblings when a defense attorney showed her family photos of her siblings.
The children, looking fragile seated in the large wooden witness chair, replied with yes and no answers or in fragmented statements to Prosecutor Russ Leffler's questions. On cross-examination by defense lawyer Kenneth Myers, they admitted feelings of love for their former adoptive parents.
The four children, all younger than 10 years old, were shown photos of the cages where they slept or were confined as punishment as part of the prosecution's attempt to link the structures and punishment to charges that the Gravelles created a substantial risk of physical or emotional harm for the children.
Mr. Myers, standing slightly behind the witness stand, leaned over to show each child the family pictures of happy children unwrapping gifts at birthday parties and at Christmas.
The pictures were then displayed on a large screen for the jurors to see.
After showing one girl a series of photos, Mr. Myers questioned her about how she felt seeing them.
"Happy a little bit," she replied, her hands continuously knotting and unknotting a handkerchief.
The Gravelles wept as she testified, and a couple of jurors teared up as well when the girl, one of the children who did not sleep in a cage, said she was upset that she no longer saw the Gravelles.
A boy who testified said he slept "in a cage" and identified his enclosure in pictures he was shown by Mr. Leffler showed him. The boy said he and his siblings were hosed down, confirming a neighbor's testimony earlier in the week that one of the boys was hosed down on a chilly fall day.
"Not inside the house, but outside with a garden house," he responded when asked whether water was sprayed on him or his siblings.
When the prosecutor asked one of girls how many of her brothers and sisters were hosed down, she replied: "All of us."
When asked why, she said: "You might be dirty playing outside."
An older brother and sister also said the children were hosed down.
A boy said he was kept in a cage and once received a bloody nose when his father pushed his head into the bathtub during a bath.
The prosecutor asked the child how he felt sleeping in a "box," a word that the children used to describe their sleeping quarters.
"Kind of sad," he replied.
The boy said cages was the description a caseworker had used. The boy also confirmed that some of his siblings were hosed down outside the house.
A former neighbor of the Gravelles testified earlier this week that he saw Mr. Gravelle hosing a boy down in the driveway in 20-degree weather.
On cross-examination, Mr. Myers said the boy if he missed the Gravelles.
"A little bit," he said without looking at them.
One girl said she felt "safe" in her cage when questioned by Mr. Myers, but later admitted she had torn the wire mesh from the wood frame.
She had also drawn a picture of her cage and the alarm. She said her parents would come to the room if the alarm sounded to see whether she needed any help.
The other girl was asked about birthday parties for her and some of her siblings. She smiled at some of the photos.
None of the children made lengthy eye contact with the Gravelles, although one girl smiled in their direction when Mr. Myers introduced himself and his partner, Richard Drucker, and explained they were representing the Gravelles.
Mr. Myers, on cross-examination, showed one of the two girls photos of her dressed as a ballerina, wearing a tiara, and with a bicycle she received as a gift.
The girl testified she was the little girl in the pictures.
The youngsters were placed in foster care in fall, 2005, and the couple lost custody in March.
Sielicki, Jim. Toledo Lade, Dec. 8, 2006, pg. B1.
NORWALK, Ohio - Four of the younger adopted children of Sharen and Michael Gravelle testified about life in the Gravelle home yesterday, painting different pictures about how they were treated, while corroborating testimony of their older siblings given the previous day.
One boy said he was kept in a cage and once received a bloody nose when his father pushed his head while he was in the bathtub during a bath. The children - two boys and two girls - also talked about being hosed down outside the house.
The defense portrayed a different life at the northern Huron County home, showing the jury family pictures of happy children and asking children about gifts they got on their birthdays.
The Gravelles are being tried on 16 counts of felony child endangering and eight mis-demeanor child endangering charges. If convicted, they face one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count.
The children ranged in age from 1 to 14 when authorities removed them in September, 2005, from the rural home near Wakeman, about 60 miles east of Toledo. One girl testified that she was allowed to sleep in a bed, but an alarm was on her bedroom door.
She confirmed that the Gravelles had birthday parties for her and some of her siblings when a defense attorney showed her family photos of her siblings.
The children, looking fragile seated in the large wooden witness chair, replied with yes and no answers or in fragmented statements to Prosecutor Russ Leffler's questions. On cross-examination by defense lawyer Kenneth Myers, they admitted feelings of love for their former adoptive parents.
The four children, all younger than 10 years old, were shown photos of the cages where they slept or were confined as punishment as part of the prosecution's attempt to link the structures and punishment to charges that the Gravelles created a substantial risk of physical or emotional harm for the children.
Mr. Myers, standing slightly behind the witness stand, leaned over to show each child the family pictures of happy children unwrapping gifts at birthday parties and at Christmas.
The pictures were then displayed on a large screen for the jurors to see.
After showing one girl a series of photos, Mr. Myers questioned her about how she felt seeing them.
"Happy a little bit," she replied, her hands continuously knotting and unknotting a handkerchief.
The Gravelles wept as she testified, and a couple of jurors teared up as well when the girl, one of the children who did not sleep in a cage, said she was upset that she no longer saw the Gravelles.
A boy who testified said he slept "in a cage" and identified his enclosure in pictures he was shown by Mr. Leffler showed him. The boy said he and his siblings were hosed down, confirming a neighbor's testimony earlier in the week that one of the boys was hosed down on a chilly fall day.
"Not inside the house, but outside with a garden house," he responded when asked whether water was sprayed on him or his siblings.
When the prosecutor asked one of girls how many of her brothers and sisters were hosed down, she replied: "All of us."
When asked why, she said: "You might be dirty playing outside."
An older brother and sister also said the children were hosed down.
A boy said he was kept in a cage and once received a bloody nose when his father pushed his head into the bathtub during a bath.
The prosecutor asked the child how he felt sleeping in a "box," a word that the children used to describe their sleeping quarters.
"Kind of sad," he replied.
The boy said cages was the description a caseworker had used. The boy also confirmed that some of his siblings were hosed down outside the house.
A former neighbor of the Gravelles testified earlier this week that he saw Mr. Gravelle hosing a boy down in the driveway in 20-degree weather.
On cross-examination, Mr. Myers said the boy if he missed the Gravelles.
"A little bit," he said without looking at them.
One girl said she felt "safe" in her cage when questioned by Mr. Myers, but later admitted she had torn the wire mesh from the wood frame.
She had also drawn a picture of her cage and the alarm. She said her parents would come to the room if the alarm sounded to see whether she needed any help.
The other girl was asked about birthday parties for her and some of her siblings. She smiled at some of the photos.
None of the children made lengthy eye contact with the Gravelles, although one girl smiled in their direction when Mr. Myers introduced himself and his partner, Richard Drucker, and explained they were representing the Gravelles.
Mr. Myers, on cross-examination, showed one of the two girls photos of her dressed as a ballerina, wearing a tiara, and with a bicycle she received as a gift.
The girl testified she was the little girl in the pictures.
The youngsters were placed in foster care in fall, 2005, and the couple lost custody in March.
Lifeway has a history of violations, nepotism and unqualified foster parents
Foster-care empire struggles after death
McLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 10, 2006, pg. A1.
$15M-a-year company rose from humble beginnings
Shirt-sleeves rolled up and his apron soaking wet from the chest down, Mike Berner - a man earning $225,000 a year - washes dishes Friday and Saturday nights in the kitchen of the quaint cafe he owns three blocks from Wittenberg University in Springfield.
The apron is gone Sunday mornings as the 51-year-old father of three preaches about Jesus and family values to a small congregation at Grace Fellowship Church in New Carlisle, a nondenominational church he and his wife started in 1984.
Berner said he doesn't watch television; doesn't read the newspaper; doesn't have the time.
He has built Lifeway For Youth from a $35,000 federal grubstake in 1994 to a $15 million-a-year company with branches in six states, hundreds of children in foster-care homes and eight relatives on his payroll.
The rosy picture has dimmed since August, when 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel died and Berner became the poster child for Ohio's embattled private foster-care industry.
Lifeway is just one agency in a huge network of nonprofit businesses - taking in $250 million from taxpayers annually - that the state depends on to find homes for abused and neglected foster children.
Since Marcus' death in a Lifeway foster home, the agencies also have operated under increased scrutiny as lawmakers and county child-protection advocates look to plug loopholes and tighten regulations to keep people like Marcus' foster parents from infiltrating the system.
Marcus' foster parents aren't the only one who've prompted questions about Lifeway's placement of children. In the middle of the debate over Marcus' death, another Lifeway foster father, Jaysen Bell, was indicted in Clermont County, accused of sexually abusing two boys who stayed with him.
Berner defends the New Carlisle company he built from scratch 12 years ago. "The Carroll case and what's been looked at recently does not represent what Lifeway is as an agency and what we've done with over 5,000 kids since we've been doing this work," he said.
Berner said he was very surprised by the sexual assault case. "They were respected in the community and had excellent references," he said.
Marcus ignited furor
According to police, Marcus, a developmentally delayed boy from Middletown, died after his Lifeway foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr., bound him in blankets and strapping tape and left him in a closet for two days while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky. The Carrolls are jailed on murder and other charges.
The state last week slammed Lifeway's handling of Marcus' placement with the Carrolls, saying Lifeway employees fudged training hours the Carrolls were supposed to receive and didn't adequately check the Carrolls' background before certifying them to become foster parents.
Berner said his business has dropped off significantly since Marcus' death. He faces a $5 million lawsuit filed by Marcus' birth mother, Donna Trevino.
In the meantime, Lifeway's survival lies in the balance.
Foster parents in Greater Cincinnati are leaving the company and going to other agencies. County child protection agencies in Ohio - including Hamilton, Clermont, Warren and Butler, which had custody of Marcus - have refused to place any more kids with Lifeway for now.
The state will decide by Jan. 18 whether problems at Lifeway are too significant and uncorrectable to allow the company to keep its license.
Berner is frustrated.
"Everybody is saying this could have happened to anybody," Berner said. "But, it's just, 'Let's crucify Lifeway.'"
Small beginnings
Things at Lifeway weren't always so complicated.
The company that Berner said he started in 1994 as a ministry to help about a dozen local kids received $35,000 in federal money its first year.
Lifeway since then has grown to a $15 million business that has taken in $46 million in federal dollars since 2000. It's now responsible for close to 900 children in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia.
Typically, foster parents get a little more than half the money the government pays for each child. The middlemen keep the rest to run their businesses. The state allows Lifeway to take 43 percent of the federal money the company takes in.
County foster-care officials in Greater Cincinnati say Lifeway is considered one of the better quality and less expensive private agencies for placing some of the area's most-troubled children.
Lifeway's business is strongest in Ohio, where it has placed 475 children with foster parents - although the agency now has nearly 50 vacancies in its homes because county child protection agencies aren't placing children with it any more. The agency also is among the biggest private foster-care agencies in the state, state officials say.
Berner continues to expand Lifeway.
Berner opened several offices in Kentucky in 2000 and followed with others in Indiana and Virginia. This year, he received licenses to operate in Texas and Georgia, but didn't have any foster children placed in those states as late as October.
A family affair
Lifeway's growth appears to have provided the Berner family with a sliver of the good life.
Berner and his wife, Brenda, the company's assistant director and chief financial officer, draw combined salaries of $385,000 a year from Lifeway.
The Berners own a $337,000 home on 1.6 acres in New Carlisle, another 25 acres with a farmhouse close by, a four-seat Cessna plane and a shiny white baby grand piano in their formal living room.
The couple's salaries have more than tripled since 1998, federal tax records show.
Other family members also profit from Lifeway
The Berners, their two daughters and other relatives make at least $600,000 from Lifeway each year, according to state documents and federal tax statements that nonprofit companies are required to file. Lifeway's 53 caseworkers in Ohio average about $31,000 a year, according to data the company supplied to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Berner said he views Lifeway as a family business similar to others in the foster-care industry.
Berner said his and his wife's salaries are set by a board of directors he has recruited from the community.
Berner said he did not influence the board's decision to set the couple's salaries. Instead, he asked the board to consider national surveys comparing the salaries top administrators earn in nonprofit organizations.
"My request to them was to consider bringing my salary up. We were underpaid," Berner said. "My request was to keep us in the average and they did."
Wanted to be a cop
Berner, with a master's degree in counseling and a Ph.D. in ministry, started college wanting to be a police officer. After figuring that he still would be too young - younger than 21 - to qualify for a law enforcement job by the time he graduated from Urbana College, he said he took on a second major in social rehabilitation.
An internship led to a job as a caseworker. Berner said he landed a state position as an administrator at the now-defunct Ohio Veterans Children Home, a residential home for troubled children. He left about four years before the state shut it down to start Lifeway.
Berner portrays himself as a simple man who has devoted his life and much of his personal finances to social services, at times drawing against the equity in his own home to keep the business running in its early years.
Tim Snapp, a New Carlisle horse breeder who is on the Lifeway board, met Berner about seven years ago through the local Rotary Club. He has served on the Lifeway board for three or four years.
"It just seems like everything has been negative in the news," Snapp said. "He's very caring, sincere, and he's honest."
Berner says he's not as astute in business as some of his contemporaries who work in private foster care.
But, state records and others in Clark County show his business savvy goes beyond running Lifeway and managing nearly 200 employees and at least $2.6 million in the company's real estate.
Berner recently was licensed in Ohio for another venture called Lifeway SOLO, a for-profit company he said will teach living skills to mentally retarded adults. He said he hasn't had time to develop the business in the aftermath of Marcus' death.
He owns Cecil & Lime cafe in Springfield with its full bar and menu offering anything from prime rib to lasagna or a simple chicken salad sandwich.
Berner calls it a "half-baked" cafe that couldn't possibly support his family.
His son Micah, a musician and the only one of his children who doesn't work at Lifeway, manages the restaurant. Berner put it up for sale more than a year ago because it wasn't drawing enough customers to make money. It's still open while he tries to sell it for $425,000.
Times are tough for the restaurant, which is why Berner says he can be found washing dishes and busing tables on weekends.
There's also the real-estate investment firm Berner runs out of his home, and used this year to sell a rundown bar and a house in Springfield to his foster-care company.
Berner said the house and bar - formerly Pete's Place - will be renovated into a home for teenage boys to prepare them for living alone and being emancipated from the foster-care system when they turn 18.
The Clark County auditor's Web site shows Berner bought the property for $82,500 in November 2005 and sold it to Lifeway for $92,000 four months later.
Berner said he didn't profit from the sale. "I sold the property for what I had invested in it," Berner said. "We actually lost money."
Lifeway was one of 27 private foster-care agencies that weathered a scathing review by the Ohio Auditor's Office three years ago.
A subsequent report called for more state oversight, criticized the agencies for nepotism and said some of them collectively overbilled the foster-care system a total $14 million in improper expenditures.
The head of one agency even went on a cruise and other trips, and bought a camera and tickets to a Rolling Stones concert with federal money.
The 2003 report accused Berner of improperly using federal money to buy cigarettes, diet pills and flowers for staff; and pay $10,000 for his daughter's college tuition and for employee dental work that wasn't covered by insurance.
Berner said he has resolved those spending issues and quit doing business that way.
"We've made a couple less-than-arm's-length transactions since we ran Lifeway," he said. "We know how important it is to avoid all appearances of impropriety and we try to do that."
Now, Berner spends his time trying to salvage his company's image and his reputation.
He doesn't like how he has been portrayed since Marcus died.
He said he's waiting, like everyone else in the industry, to see how state legislators and foster-care officials strengthen the screening process in the wake of the Carrolls' arrest.
He's cautiously confident the state won't shut down Lifeway.
"We really are not planning for that event," Berner said.
"Looking for someone to (blame) this on is the wrong approach."
A CLOSER LOOK AT LIFEWAY
The Lifeway lineup
Nine relatives and nine members of Mike Berner's Grace Fellowship Church draw salaries from Lifeway. They include:
--Michael Berner, executive director and founder, $225,000
--Brenda Berner, wife, assistant executive director, $160,000
--Andrea Berner-Hurst, daughter, regional director, about $50,000
--Rebekah Botello, daughter, business manager, $37,503.68
--Jaime Botello, son-in-law, maintenance, $21,000
--Paul Hanrahan, half-brother, assistant director of operations, $62,000
--Elizabeth Hanrahan, sister-in-law; senior accounts clerk; secretary/treasurer and administrator at Grace Fellowship Church; $29,513
--Chuck Hanrahan, half-brother, vehicle maintenance, salary unavailable
--Jason Hanrahan, nephew, IT support; also youth leader at Grace Fellowship Church, $20,200
Sources: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and federal tax returns
Company's growth
Berner, who founded the non-denominational Grace Fellowship Church in 1984 and Lifeway 10 years later, began expanding Lifeway For Youth and branching out to other businesses in 1999.
1994: Lifeway opens in Ohio. The company's headquarters are in New Carlisle, with offices in Sharonville, Franklin, Hilliard, Canton, Cleveland and Columbus.
1999: Lifeway incorporates in Kentucky. Offices are in Ashland, Berea, Corbin, Elizabethtown, Florence, Hazard, Lexington, Louisville, Prestonburg and Somerset.
2000: Berner Real Estate Investments LLC is incorporated in December. Mike Berner runs the for-profit business out of his house.
Berner Service Systems Inc., a for-profit company, is established to run Berner's Springfield restaurant, Cecil & Lime Cafe.
2004: Lifeway incorporates in Indiana, where it has offices in Indianapolis and Lafayette.
2005: Lifeway is licensed in Virginia in March and opens an office in Richmond. Nineteen children are placed in 11 foster homes as of October 2005. The company accumulates 82 violations between June 2005 and March 2006, according to Virginia Department of Social Services records.
Violations include failure to conduct criminal background checks on foster parents before children were placed with them, a failure to check references for foster parents and not providing required physical and dental examinations for children. Some of the problems cited were repeat violations.
2006: Lifeway is licensed in Texas and Georgia and is in the process of developing foster homes there.
The for-profit Lifeway Solo Day Habilitation Program Inc. is incorporated in July to provide living skills to mentally retarded adults.
Sources: State licensing records in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Texas and Georgia.
The Berner file
Berner and his wife don't appear to live a lavish lifestyle, but their association with Lifeway has rewarded them. They own:
A two-story, three-bedroom, three-bath home listed for sale at $337,000 on 1.6 acres in New Carlisle's Tall Hickory subdivision. A white baby grand piano sits in the formal living room, according to a picture on the real-estate agent's listing on the Internet. The house has been on the market for two years. Berner said he is looking for a ranch-style home instead so he can have his elderly parents move in and can care for them.
Twenty-five acres with a 106-year-old farmhouse on Troy Road in German Township. Four acres are zoned for business, which Berner plans to sell. He said he wanted the wooded property for a getaway to hike and bike not far from home. Berner bought the property through his real-estate investment company for $214,000 in August.
A 1962 Cessna 172D four-seat plane. With new paint and a new interior, it is listed for sale on the Internet for $39,500. Berner, a licensed pilot, said he and his father bought the plane together to renovate.
Clark County Auditor's Web site and FAA records.
Others in trouble
Liz and David Carroll Jr. are not the only Lifeway For Youth foster parents who have been in trouble. Others include:
Gracie Vandemark: Charged twice with making false statements to police in Clermont County and endangering children.
Victor Delomas: Stopped in Kentucky and charged with drunken driving while returning from camping with Marcus' older brother and infant sister.
Jaysen Bell: Charged with eight counts of rape, sexual battery, gross imposition and sexual imposition involving two of his foster children.
Random observations:
Mike Berner, the founder and executive director of Lifeway for Youth, built the foster-care company into a $15-million business responsible for 900 children in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia.
Berner preaches to a small congregation at Grace Fellowship Church, which is associated with the foster-care agency.
Lifeway for Youth's headquarters in New Carlisle is the center of the company's $15 million-a-year operation.
Mike Berner's three-bedroom New Carlisle home is for sale. A real-estate agent lists a picture of the home's living room, featuring a baby grand piano.
McLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 10, 2006, pg. A1.
$15M-a-year company rose from humble beginnings
Shirt-sleeves rolled up and his apron soaking wet from the chest down, Mike Berner - a man earning $225,000 a year - washes dishes Friday and Saturday nights in the kitchen of the quaint cafe he owns three blocks from Wittenberg University in Springfield.
The apron is gone Sunday mornings as the 51-year-old father of three preaches about Jesus and family values to a small congregation at Grace Fellowship Church in New Carlisle, a nondenominational church he and his wife started in 1984.
Berner said he doesn't watch television; doesn't read the newspaper; doesn't have the time.
He has built Lifeway For Youth from a $35,000 federal grubstake in 1994 to a $15 million-a-year company with branches in six states, hundreds of children in foster-care homes and eight relatives on his payroll.
The rosy picture has dimmed since August, when 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel died and Berner became the poster child for Ohio's embattled private foster-care industry.
Lifeway is just one agency in a huge network of nonprofit businesses - taking in $250 million from taxpayers annually - that the state depends on to find homes for abused and neglected foster children.
Since Marcus' death in a Lifeway foster home, the agencies also have operated under increased scrutiny as lawmakers and county child-protection advocates look to plug loopholes and tighten regulations to keep people like Marcus' foster parents from infiltrating the system.
Marcus' foster parents aren't the only one who've prompted questions about Lifeway's placement of children. In the middle of the debate over Marcus' death, another Lifeway foster father, Jaysen Bell, was indicted in Clermont County, accused of sexually abusing two boys who stayed with him.
Berner defends the New Carlisle company he built from scratch 12 years ago. "The Carroll case and what's been looked at recently does not represent what Lifeway is as an agency and what we've done with over 5,000 kids since we've been doing this work," he said.
Berner said he was very surprised by the sexual assault case. "They were respected in the community and had excellent references," he said.
Marcus ignited furor
According to police, Marcus, a developmentally delayed boy from Middletown, died after his Lifeway foster parents, Liz and David Carroll Jr., bound him in blankets and strapping tape and left him in a closet for two days while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky. The Carrolls are jailed on murder and other charges.
The state last week slammed Lifeway's handling of Marcus' placement with the Carrolls, saying Lifeway employees fudged training hours the Carrolls were supposed to receive and didn't adequately check the Carrolls' background before certifying them to become foster parents.
Berner said his business has dropped off significantly since Marcus' death. He faces a $5 million lawsuit filed by Marcus' birth mother, Donna Trevino.
In the meantime, Lifeway's survival lies in the balance.
Foster parents in Greater Cincinnati are leaving the company and going to other agencies. County child protection agencies in Ohio - including Hamilton, Clermont, Warren and Butler, which had custody of Marcus - have refused to place any more kids with Lifeway for now.
The state will decide by Jan. 18 whether problems at Lifeway are too significant and uncorrectable to allow the company to keep its license.
Berner is frustrated.
"Everybody is saying this could have happened to anybody," Berner said. "But, it's just, 'Let's crucify Lifeway.'"
Small beginnings
Things at Lifeway weren't always so complicated.
The company that Berner said he started in 1994 as a ministry to help about a dozen local kids received $35,000 in federal money its first year.
Lifeway since then has grown to a $15 million business that has taken in $46 million in federal dollars since 2000. It's now responsible for close to 900 children in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia.
Typically, foster parents get a little more than half the money the government pays for each child. The middlemen keep the rest to run their businesses. The state allows Lifeway to take 43 percent of the federal money the company takes in.
County foster-care officials in Greater Cincinnati say Lifeway is considered one of the better quality and less expensive private agencies for placing some of the area's most-troubled children.
Lifeway's business is strongest in Ohio, where it has placed 475 children with foster parents - although the agency now has nearly 50 vacancies in its homes because county child protection agencies aren't placing children with it any more. The agency also is among the biggest private foster-care agencies in the state, state officials say.
Berner continues to expand Lifeway.
Berner opened several offices in Kentucky in 2000 and followed with others in Indiana and Virginia. This year, he received licenses to operate in Texas and Georgia, but didn't have any foster children placed in those states as late as October.
A family affair
Lifeway's growth appears to have provided the Berner family with a sliver of the good life.
Berner and his wife, Brenda, the company's assistant director and chief financial officer, draw combined salaries of $385,000 a year from Lifeway.
The Berners own a $337,000 home on 1.6 acres in New Carlisle, another 25 acres with a farmhouse close by, a four-seat Cessna plane and a shiny white baby grand piano in their formal living room.
The couple's salaries have more than tripled since 1998, federal tax records show.
Other family members also profit from Lifeway
The Berners, their two daughters and other relatives make at least $600,000 from Lifeway each year, according to state documents and federal tax statements that nonprofit companies are required to file. Lifeway's 53 caseworkers in Ohio average about $31,000 a year, according to data the company supplied to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Berner said he views Lifeway as a family business similar to others in the foster-care industry.
Berner said his and his wife's salaries are set by a board of directors he has recruited from the community.
Berner said he did not influence the board's decision to set the couple's salaries. Instead, he asked the board to consider national surveys comparing the salaries top administrators earn in nonprofit organizations.
"My request to them was to consider bringing my salary up. We were underpaid," Berner said. "My request was to keep us in the average and they did."
Wanted to be a cop
Berner, with a master's degree in counseling and a Ph.D. in ministry, started college wanting to be a police officer. After figuring that he still would be too young - younger than 21 - to qualify for a law enforcement job by the time he graduated from Urbana College, he said he took on a second major in social rehabilitation.
An internship led to a job as a caseworker. Berner said he landed a state position as an administrator at the now-defunct Ohio Veterans Children Home, a residential home for troubled children. He left about four years before the state shut it down to start Lifeway.
Berner portrays himself as a simple man who has devoted his life and much of his personal finances to social services, at times drawing against the equity in his own home to keep the business running in its early years.
Tim Snapp, a New Carlisle horse breeder who is on the Lifeway board, met Berner about seven years ago through the local Rotary Club. He has served on the Lifeway board for three or four years.
"It just seems like everything has been negative in the news," Snapp said. "He's very caring, sincere, and he's honest."
Berner says he's not as astute in business as some of his contemporaries who work in private foster care.
But, state records and others in Clark County show his business savvy goes beyond running Lifeway and managing nearly 200 employees and at least $2.6 million in the company's real estate.
Berner recently was licensed in Ohio for another venture called Lifeway SOLO, a for-profit company he said will teach living skills to mentally retarded adults. He said he hasn't had time to develop the business in the aftermath of Marcus' death.
He owns Cecil & Lime cafe in Springfield with its full bar and menu offering anything from prime rib to lasagna or a simple chicken salad sandwich.
Berner calls it a "half-baked" cafe that couldn't possibly support his family.
His son Micah, a musician and the only one of his children who doesn't work at Lifeway, manages the restaurant. Berner put it up for sale more than a year ago because it wasn't drawing enough customers to make money. It's still open while he tries to sell it for $425,000.
Times are tough for the restaurant, which is why Berner says he can be found washing dishes and busing tables on weekends.
There's also the real-estate investment firm Berner runs out of his home, and used this year to sell a rundown bar and a house in Springfield to his foster-care company.
Berner said the house and bar - formerly Pete's Place - will be renovated into a home for teenage boys to prepare them for living alone and being emancipated from the foster-care system when they turn 18.
The Clark County auditor's Web site shows Berner bought the property for $82,500 in November 2005 and sold it to Lifeway for $92,000 four months later.
Berner said he didn't profit from the sale. "I sold the property for what I had invested in it," Berner said. "We actually lost money."
Lifeway was one of 27 private foster-care agencies that weathered a scathing review by the Ohio Auditor's Office three years ago.
A subsequent report called for more state oversight, criticized the agencies for nepotism and said some of them collectively overbilled the foster-care system a total $14 million in improper expenditures.
The head of one agency even went on a cruise and other trips, and bought a camera and tickets to a Rolling Stones concert with federal money.
The 2003 report accused Berner of improperly using federal money to buy cigarettes, diet pills and flowers for staff; and pay $10,000 for his daughter's college tuition and for employee dental work that wasn't covered by insurance.
Berner said he has resolved those spending issues and quit doing business that way.
"We've made a couple less-than-arm's-length transactions since we ran Lifeway," he said. "We know how important it is to avoid all appearances of impropriety and we try to do that."
Now, Berner spends his time trying to salvage his company's image and his reputation.
He doesn't like how he has been portrayed since Marcus died.
He said he's waiting, like everyone else in the industry, to see how state legislators and foster-care officials strengthen the screening process in the wake of the Carrolls' arrest.
He's cautiously confident the state won't shut down Lifeway.
"We really are not planning for that event," Berner said.
"Looking for someone to (blame) this on is the wrong approach."
A CLOSER LOOK AT LIFEWAY
The Lifeway lineup
Nine relatives and nine members of Mike Berner's Grace Fellowship Church draw salaries from Lifeway. They include:
--Michael Berner, executive director and founder, $225,000
--Brenda Berner, wife, assistant executive director, $160,000
--Andrea Berner-Hurst, daughter, regional director, about $50,000
--Rebekah Botello, daughter, business manager, $37,503.68
--Jaime Botello, son-in-law, maintenance, $21,000
--Paul Hanrahan, half-brother, assistant director of operations, $62,000
--Elizabeth Hanrahan, sister-in-law; senior accounts clerk; secretary/treasurer and administrator at Grace Fellowship Church; $29,513
--Chuck Hanrahan, half-brother, vehicle maintenance, salary unavailable
--Jason Hanrahan, nephew, IT support; also youth leader at Grace Fellowship Church, $20,200
Sources: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and federal tax returns
Company's growth
Berner, who founded the non-denominational Grace Fellowship Church in 1984 and Lifeway 10 years later, began expanding Lifeway For Youth and branching out to other businesses in 1999.
1994: Lifeway opens in Ohio. The company's headquarters are in New Carlisle, with offices in Sharonville, Franklin, Hilliard, Canton, Cleveland and Columbus.
1999: Lifeway incorporates in Kentucky. Offices are in Ashland, Berea, Corbin, Elizabethtown, Florence, Hazard, Lexington, Louisville, Prestonburg and Somerset.
2000: Berner Real Estate Investments LLC is incorporated in December. Mike Berner runs the for-profit business out of his house.
Berner Service Systems Inc., a for-profit company, is established to run Berner's Springfield restaurant, Cecil & Lime Cafe.
2004: Lifeway incorporates in Indiana, where it has offices in Indianapolis and Lafayette.
2005: Lifeway is licensed in Virginia in March and opens an office in Richmond. Nineteen children are placed in 11 foster homes as of October 2005. The company accumulates 82 violations between June 2005 and March 2006, according to Virginia Department of Social Services records.
Violations include failure to conduct criminal background checks on foster parents before children were placed with them, a failure to check references for foster parents and not providing required physical and dental examinations for children. Some of the problems cited were repeat violations.
2006: Lifeway is licensed in Texas and Georgia and is in the process of developing foster homes there.
The for-profit Lifeway Solo Day Habilitation Program Inc. is incorporated in July to provide living skills to mentally retarded adults.
Sources: State licensing records in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Texas and Georgia.
The Berner file
Berner and his wife don't appear to live a lavish lifestyle, but their association with Lifeway has rewarded them. They own:
A two-story, three-bedroom, three-bath home listed for sale at $337,000 on 1.6 acres in New Carlisle's Tall Hickory subdivision. A white baby grand piano sits in the formal living room, according to a picture on the real-estate agent's listing on the Internet. The house has been on the market for two years. Berner said he is looking for a ranch-style home instead so he can have his elderly parents move in and can care for them.
Twenty-five acres with a 106-year-old farmhouse on Troy Road in German Township. Four acres are zoned for business, which Berner plans to sell. He said he wanted the wooded property for a getaway to hike and bike not far from home. Berner bought the property through his real-estate investment company for $214,000 in August.
A 1962 Cessna 172D four-seat plane. With new paint and a new interior, it is listed for sale on the Internet for $39,500. Berner, a licensed pilot, said he and his father bought the plane together to renovate.
Clark County Auditor's Web site and FAA records.
Others in trouble
Liz and David Carroll Jr. are not the only Lifeway For Youth foster parents who have been in trouble. Others include:
Gracie Vandemark: Charged twice with making false statements to police in Clermont County and endangering children.
Victor Delomas: Stopped in Kentucky and charged with drunken driving while returning from camping with Marcus' older brother and infant sister.
Jaysen Bell: Charged with eight counts of rape, sexual battery, gross imposition and sexual imposition involving two of his foster children.
Random observations:
Mike Berner, the founder and executive director of Lifeway for Youth, built the foster-care company into a $15-million business responsible for 900 children in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia.
Berner preaches to a small congregation at Grace Fellowship Church, which is associated with the foster-care agency.
Lifeway for Youth's headquarters in New Carlisle is the center of the company's $15 million-a-year operation.
Mike Berner's three-bedroom New Carlisle home is for sale. A real-estate agent lists a picture of the home's living room, featuring a baby grand piano.
Once homeless, now Fannie Johnson helps others
A place to Start Over
Martin, Chuck. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 15, 2006.
The elderly woman tries to hold back the tears.
"Please don't take my baby," she pleads, almost in a whisper.
Wearing a checked skirt and jacket with teased, unnaturally blond hair, the short woman with the hunched back looks to be in her 70s. She has just arrived at the Drop Inn homeless shelter in Over-the-Rhine with three suitcases and a pet carrier that holds her "baby," a gray-and-white cat named Winston.
Someone stole her money at the airport, the woman says. It's bitterly cold. She and her baby have no place to stay.
Daytime shelter coordinator Fannie Johnson listens to her story, while slowly chewing her gum and peering over her glasses. Residents aren't allowed to keep pets at the shelter, she explains. By now, the woman knows this.
"But we're going to work something out," Johnson says. "We're not going to take your baby."
Now the woman cries.
It's not even 11 a.m., and Johnson has averted one crisis. She moves the cat to an empty room upstairs. Later, Johnson will call a friend to see if she can care for the cat for a few days. And at lunch, she allows the little woman to eat lunch upstairs, alone with Winston.
"We break rules here all the time," Johnson says, huffing up two flights of stairs to her office.
Johnson, 53, knows all about that, having bent and broken a few herself to survive. A victim of domestic violence, she spent several months in a homeless shelter with her six young children.
That was 17 years ago. Since then, she has moved on and up. Divorced for 11 years, Johnson is the grandmother of five. Three of her children, ages 19-32, are in college. She is about to receive her bachelor's degree in social work and will start work on her master's this fall.
But Johnson needs no degrees to manage the Drop Inn, one of Cincinnati's oldest and largest homeless shelters.
She hears fear in the little woman's voice.
She feels the pain and shame of the woman with the bruised eye, the one probably punched by a husband or boyfriend.
Winter is the busy season for homeless shelters. The Drop Inn can sleep as many as 250 men and 50 women, and on cold nights the shelter is near capacity. But on this morning, more are thinking about eating than sleeping.
Men sit on pewlike benches, reading newspapers and talking. Phones ring and plates clatter. Women have their own reserved table in the center of the room. Most stare silently ahead.
The residents are bundled in all kinds of ragged parkas, furry caps and sweat shirts of different colors and affiliations.
"Mornin', Miss Fannie," some greet Johnson, as she steps out onto the floor in her canary-yellow windbreaker that reads "Drop Inn" on the back.
She smiles but avoids conversation. She's tired, having been here until 10:30 the night before, laboring over payroll, and now has problems to solve.
It's cold in the room - but a repair crew is on site. There's a dispute over a resident's locker. Johnson thoughtfully listens to her staffer describe the grievance.
Residents approach to complain they have been waiting longer than anyone to see a caseworker or advocate. Johnson listens patiently, then renders a decision. She's firm but fair, and always respectful.
"Anyone can be homeless," she says.
Starting over
There was a time when she didn't believe that. She and her husband and their first child moved to Cincinnati in 1975, from their home in Mississippi, where they picked cotton on a former plantation. He worked for the railroad and she took care of the children. The couple bought a nice house in Mount Healthy.
"We had everything then," she says, sitting in her office upstairs.
A small artificial Christmas tree is perched in the tall window looking out onto a tangle of utility wires and rooftops on 12th Street. Pictures of her children and grandchildren line a bookshelf.
Johnson admits she should have seen the problems coming with her husband - the drugs, alcohol and gambling. He came home one night in 1985 to announce he didn't want to live with her any longer. He left his wife and children with nothing to live on but a little savings.
She remembers the Christmas of 1986 as the worst, when she couldn't afford to buy gifts for her children.
"I didn't let them go outside that day," Johnson says, "because I didn't want them to see what other kids got for Christmas."
She and her husband continued counseling for another year, and she had their sixth child. But finally, she and the kids were forced to leave their home and live in hotels and with friends.
In 1989, she and the children moved into the Chabad House in Roselawn. While staying there for three months, Johnson began working at the shelter, soon earning enough to rent a small apartment in Avondale. In 1993, she bought a house in Colerain Township, where she still lives.
But even though they were separated, her husband physically abused her for nine years. He was convicted in 1995 and served six years in prison. Johnson came to the Drop Inn in 2002 to work, after the Chabad House closed.
Looking back, she says, living in a homeless shelter wasn't the low-point in her life - it was a beginning.
"I wasn't staying at somebody else's house," she says. "I wasn't staying at a hotel and having to figure out how I was going to pay for it.
"It was our own space."
Never-ending work
A few minutes before noon, Johnson goes downstairs to work the front desk in relief of a staffer who went to lunch.
The room is noisy with chatter and smells of the cheesy pasta being served to the long line of residents. For an hour, the shelter has the happy feel of a bustling restaurant.
At her post, Johnson is busy answering the phone and listening to sad stories, stoically chewing her gum. They are people looking - hoping - for their own space. She shows little emotion while they talk to her. She never cries in front of them.
"That's when you walk away," she says. "I can't cry. I'm here to be supportive."
A Hamilton County sheriff's deputy drops by to show her a photo of a paroled sex offender. Johnson shakes her head: He's not staying here.
A woman asks for a roll of toilet paper; Johnson fetches it. No job is too small or too big for the daytime supervisor.
Before she lived in a shelter, Johnson says, she was in her own selfish little world.
"I really didn't care that much about other people then," she says.
That has changed. If anything, she sometimes wishes she could make more time for herself, to take long walks, read mysteries and relish her alone time.
But for a woman with a heart this big, that's awfully hard.
Martin, Chuck. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 15, 2006.
The elderly woman tries to hold back the tears.
"Please don't take my baby," she pleads, almost in a whisper.
Wearing a checked skirt and jacket with teased, unnaturally blond hair, the short woman with the hunched back looks to be in her 70s. She has just arrived at the Drop Inn homeless shelter in Over-the-Rhine with three suitcases and a pet carrier that holds her "baby," a gray-and-white cat named Winston.
Someone stole her money at the airport, the woman says. It's bitterly cold. She and her baby have no place to stay.
Daytime shelter coordinator Fannie Johnson listens to her story, while slowly chewing her gum and peering over her glasses. Residents aren't allowed to keep pets at the shelter, she explains. By now, the woman knows this.
"But we're going to work something out," Johnson says. "We're not going to take your baby."
Now the woman cries.
It's not even 11 a.m., and Johnson has averted one crisis. She moves the cat to an empty room upstairs. Later, Johnson will call a friend to see if she can care for the cat for a few days. And at lunch, she allows the little woman to eat lunch upstairs, alone with Winston.
"We break rules here all the time," Johnson says, huffing up two flights of stairs to her office.
Johnson, 53, knows all about that, having bent and broken a few herself to survive. A victim of domestic violence, she spent several months in a homeless shelter with her six young children.
That was 17 years ago. Since then, she has moved on and up. Divorced for 11 years, Johnson is the grandmother of five. Three of her children, ages 19-32, are in college. She is about to receive her bachelor's degree in social work and will start work on her master's this fall.
But Johnson needs no degrees to manage the Drop Inn, one of Cincinnati's oldest and largest homeless shelters.
She hears fear in the little woman's voice.
She feels the pain and shame of the woman with the bruised eye, the one probably punched by a husband or boyfriend.
Winter is the busy season for homeless shelters. The Drop Inn can sleep as many as 250 men and 50 women, and on cold nights the shelter is near capacity. But on this morning, more are thinking about eating than sleeping.
Men sit on pewlike benches, reading newspapers and talking. Phones ring and plates clatter. Women have their own reserved table in the center of the room. Most stare silently ahead.
The residents are bundled in all kinds of ragged parkas, furry caps and sweat shirts of different colors and affiliations.
"Mornin', Miss Fannie," some greet Johnson, as she steps out onto the floor in her canary-yellow windbreaker that reads "Drop Inn" on the back.
She smiles but avoids conversation. She's tired, having been here until 10:30 the night before, laboring over payroll, and now has problems to solve.
It's cold in the room - but a repair crew is on site. There's a dispute over a resident's locker. Johnson thoughtfully listens to her staffer describe the grievance.
Residents approach to complain they have been waiting longer than anyone to see a caseworker or advocate. Johnson listens patiently, then renders a decision. She's firm but fair, and always respectful.
"Anyone can be homeless," she says.
Starting over
There was a time when she didn't believe that. She and her husband and their first child moved to Cincinnati in 1975, from their home in Mississippi, where they picked cotton on a former plantation. He worked for the railroad and she took care of the children. The couple bought a nice house in Mount Healthy.
"We had everything then," she says, sitting in her office upstairs.
A small artificial Christmas tree is perched in the tall window looking out onto a tangle of utility wires and rooftops on 12th Street. Pictures of her children and grandchildren line a bookshelf.
Johnson admits she should have seen the problems coming with her husband - the drugs, alcohol and gambling. He came home one night in 1985 to announce he didn't want to live with her any longer. He left his wife and children with nothing to live on but a little savings.
She remembers the Christmas of 1986 as the worst, when she couldn't afford to buy gifts for her children.
"I didn't let them go outside that day," Johnson says, "because I didn't want them to see what other kids got for Christmas."
She and her husband continued counseling for another year, and she had their sixth child. But finally, she and the kids were forced to leave their home and live in hotels and with friends.
In 1989, she and the children moved into the Chabad House in Roselawn. While staying there for three months, Johnson began working at the shelter, soon earning enough to rent a small apartment in Avondale. In 1993, she bought a house in Colerain Township, where she still lives.
But even though they were separated, her husband physically abused her for nine years. He was convicted in 1995 and served six years in prison. Johnson came to the Drop Inn in 2002 to work, after the Chabad House closed.
Looking back, she says, living in a homeless shelter wasn't the low-point in her life - it was a beginning.
"I wasn't staying at somebody else's house," she says. "I wasn't staying at a hotel and having to figure out how I was going to pay for it.
"It was our own space."
Never-ending work
A few minutes before noon, Johnson goes downstairs to work the front desk in relief of a staffer who went to lunch.
The room is noisy with chatter and smells of the cheesy pasta being served to the long line of residents. For an hour, the shelter has the happy feel of a bustling restaurant.
At her post, Johnson is busy answering the phone and listening to sad stories, stoically chewing her gum. They are people looking - hoping - for their own space. She shows little emotion while they talk to her. She never cries in front of them.
"That's when you walk away," she says. "I can't cry. I'm here to be supportive."
A Hamilton County sheriff's deputy drops by to show her a photo of a paroled sex offender. Johnson shakes her head: He's not staying here.
A woman asks for a roll of toilet paper; Johnson fetches it. No job is too small or too big for the daytime supervisor.
Before she lived in a shelter, Johnson says, she was in her own selfish little world.
"I really didn't care that much about other people then," she says.
That has changed. If anything, she sometimes wishes she could make more time for herself, to take long walks, read mysteries and relish her alone time.
But for a woman with a heart this big, that's awfully hard.
Too many special needs children in one house ($56,000 per year)
Testimony read to jury in trial over caged kids:
Therapist was questioned last year
Sielicki, Jim. Toledo Blade, Dec. 15, 2006, pg. A1.
NORWALK, Ohio — A bit of "reader's theater" played out in Huron County Common Pleas Court yesterday, part of the drama in the defense of two parents who are on trial after being accused of risking the welfare of their 11 adopted children by forcing them to sleep in cages.
Elaine Thompson, a therapist for the children of Michael and Sharen Gravelle and a key witness for their defense, was unavailable to testify.
Her attorney, Marilu Laubenthal, stood in for her and read from the transcript of the testimony Ms. Thompson gave in Juvenile Court a year ago.
Ms. Laubenthal said in an interview that she told the court Ms. Thompson was "unavailable legally" because of her pending trial. Ms. Thompson was indicted on charges of not reporting suspected child abuse in the Gravelle home; she is to go on trial in February.
Ms. Laubenthal said she told the defense team the narration would have to serve as her testimony, or they'd get "nothing at all" from her client.
Ms. Thompson provided therapy for some of the children and helped the Gravelles obtain funding from Hamilton County to pay for her services. She said a similar request for money was given to Stark County, but that request was ignored, she had testified.
The Gravelles had adopted children from several other counties in addition to those two.
The Gravelles hired her in the fall of 2000 when they had eight children and were seeking help in dealing with the children's unruliness.
Some of the children had severe physical and mental issues that contributed to their disruptive behavior, she had testified. Some of the treatment was performed in the Gravelles' home near Wakeman, Ohio, and some was done at her office in Elyria, Ohio.
The reading of the testimony was unusual. While it is seldom used in a criminal trial, it is similar to lawyers taking depositions in lengthy civil proceedings, Ms. Thompson's attorney explained in the interview.
Defense attorney Kenneth Myers read the same questions he had addressed to Ms. Thompson last December, while Ms. Laubenthal provided verbatim answers from the transcript.
Prosecutor Russ Leffler occasionally objected when the topic strayed from Ms. Thompson's treatment of the children.
The reading was interrupted midday for live testimony from Sandra McPherson, a forensic psychologist from Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Ms. McPherson said she frequently testifies in court and consults with police agencies on child-abuse issues and conducting effective interviews with young victims.
The defense questioned some of the interviewing methods used by Huron County sheriff's deputies and social workers shortly after the Gravelle children were removed from their home on Sept. 9, 2005.
She cautioned against posing highly leading questions or those that express a point of view with young children because the answers will be unreliable.
Ms. McPherson said she interviewed the Gravelle children, the adoptive parents, caseworkers, and others involved in the case.
She testified that the children's many behavioral problems forced the parents to seek alternative methods of keeping them from wandering the house at night, urinating on the floors and beds, and fighting with one another.
She testified that the enclosed beds constructed by the Gravelles were "the least restrictive" option for keeping the children safe, "given the danger of the behaviors described."
She said the caged beds helped prevent further instances of the children holding a sibling by his shoes from the second-floor window or "sticking their bottoms out the window and having a bowel movement."
In response to a question from Mr. Leffler, Ms. McPherson said a better outcome for the children would be to place them in smaller foster homes.
"I only know there were too many children with special needs," the defense witness said.
Testimony in the three-week-long trial showed the Gravelles punished one of the boys who frequently urinated in bed by forcing him to sleep in a bathtub.
The psychologist called that treatment an attempt by the parents "to get him to use the toilet."
When Ms. Myers asked her if that would constitute abuse, she replied: "It would depend if they gave him blankets." - BULLSHIT
The boy testified early in the trial that he was given few coverings and he was forced to sleep in the tub for 81 days.
She said a short-term stay in the bathroom "would not be a bad thing" in teaching a child to use the toilet.
On cross-examination, Mr. Leffler asked Ms. McPherson whether an 81-day stay in the bathroom, where the boy took his meals and was forced to leave when other children needed to use it, constituted child abuse.
"Yes," she replied.
She was asked if it would be humiliating. "It could be, yes," she answered.
In response to another question on cross-examination, she told Mr. Leffler that making a child sleep in cages for 3½ years also could be considered excessive.
Mr. Myers, attempting to defuse another issue raised earlier in the trial, asked her if it was wrong to have a misbehaving child write out the Book of Deuteronomy by hand.
"I'm not sure how effective it is," Ms. McPherson said. "But it's something that has been used in churches, schools, and homes for a long time."
Prosecutor Leffler tried to delve into the Gravelles' motivation for keeping 11 children and asked Ms. McPherson whether the "$56,000-a-year subsidy was appropriate."
But Judge Earl McGimpsey ordered the question withdrawn from the jury's consideration and huddled with the attorneys to discuss it.
The motivation issue arose later when the reading of Ms. Thompson's testimony resumed.
Ms. Thompson, through her attorney, had testified during the Juvenile Court hearing that the Gravelles "loved kids and they thought they had something to offer them." - OR THE KIDS HAD SOMETHING ($) TO OFFER THEM
Ms. Thompson had testified that "my first impression was you just kind of recoil" when seeing the cages the first time.
But she said she understood that the cages were built to protect the children and the Gravelles had the children's best interests at heart.
The Gravelles "did the best they could," Ms. Thompson had testified. "I thought safety had to take priority."
The reading of Ms. Thompson's testimony is scheduled to conclude this morning with the reading of the cross-examination by the prosecutor from Juvenile Court.
Judge McGimpsey told the jury he expected defense testimony to conclude today, with closing arguments and jury instructions set for Tuesday.
Therapist was questioned last year
Sielicki, Jim. Toledo Blade, Dec. 15, 2006, pg. A1.
NORWALK, Ohio — A bit of "reader's theater" played out in Huron County Common Pleas Court yesterday, part of the drama in the defense of two parents who are on trial after being accused of risking the welfare of their 11 adopted children by forcing them to sleep in cages.
Elaine Thompson, a therapist for the children of Michael and Sharen Gravelle and a key witness for their defense, was unavailable to testify.
Her attorney, Marilu Laubenthal, stood in for her and read from the transcript of the testimony Ms. Thompson gave in Juvenile Court a year ago.
Ms. Laubenthal said in an interview that she told the court Ms. Thompson was "unavailable legally" because of her pending trial. Ms. Thompson was indicted on charges of not reporting suspected child abuse in the Gravelle home; she is to go on trial in February.
Ms. Laubenthal said she told the defense team the narration would have to serve as her testimony, or they'd get "nothing at all" from her client.
Ms. Thompson provided therapy for some of the children and helped the Gravelles obtain funding from Hamilton County to pay for her services. She said a similar request for money was given to Stark County, but that request was ignored, she had testified.
The Gravelles had adopted children from several other counties in addition to those two.
The Gravelles hired her in the fall of 2000 when they had eight children and were seeking help in dealing with the children's unruliness.
Some of the children had severe physical and mental issues that contributed to their disruptive behavior, she had testified. Some of the treatment was performed in the Gravelles' home near Wakeman, Ohio, and some was done at her office in Elyria, Ohio.
The reading of the testimony was unusual. While it is seldom used in a criminal trial, it is similar to lawyers taking depositions in lengthy civil proceedings, Ms. Thompson's attorney explained in the interview.
Defense attorney Kenneth Myers read the same questions he had addressed to Ms. Thompson last December, while Ms. Laubenthal provided verbatim answers from the transcript.
Prosecutor Russ Leffler occasionally objected when the topic strayed from Ms. Thompson's treatment of the children.
The reading was interrupted midday for live testimony from Sandra McPherson, a forensic psychologist from Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Ms. McPherson said she frequently testifies in court and consults with police agencies on child-abuse issues and conducting effective interviews with young victims.
The defense questioned some of the interviewing methods used by Huron County sheriff's deputies and social workers shortly after the Gravelle children were removed from their home on Sept. 9, 2005.
She cautioned against posing highly leading questions or those that express a point of view with young children because the answers will be unreliable.
Ms. McPherson said she interviewed the Gravelle children, the adoptive parents, caseworkers, and others involved in the case.
She testified that the children's many behavioral problems forced the parents to seek alternative methods of keeping them from wandering the house at night, urinating on the floors and beds, and fighting with one another.
She testified that the enclosed beds constructed by the Gravelles were "the least restrictive" option for keeping the children safe, "given the danger of the behaviors described."
She said the caged beds helped prevent further instances of the children holding a sibling by his shoes from the second-floor window or "sticking their bottoms out the window and having a bowel movement."
In response to a question from Mr. Leffler, Ms. McPherson said a better outcome for the children would be to place them in smaller foster homes.
"I only know there were too many children with special needs," the defense witness said.
Testimony in the three-week-long trial showed the Gravelles punished one of the boys who frequently urinated in bed by forcing him to sleep in a bathtub.
The psychologist called that treatment an attempt by the parents "to get him to use the toilet."
When Ms. Myers asked her if that would constitute abuse, she replied: "It would depend if they gave him blankets." - BULLSHIT
The boy testified early in the trial that he was given few coverings and he was forced to sleep in the tub for 81 days.
She said a short-term stay in the bathroom "would not be a bad thing" in teaching a child to use the toilet.
On cross-examination, Mr. Leffler asked Ms. McPherson whether an 81-day stay in the bathroom, where the boy took his meals and was forced to leave when other children needed to use it, constituted child abuse.
"Yes," she replied.
She was asked if it would be humiliating. "It could be, yes," she answered.
In response to another question on cross-examination, she told Mr. Leffler that making a child sleep in cages for 3½ years also could be considered excessive.
Mr. Myers, attempting to defuse another issue raised earlier in the trial, asked her if it was wrong to have a misbehaving child write out the Book of Deuteronomy by hand.
"I'm not sure how effective it is," Ms. McPherson said. "But it's something that has been used in churches, schools, and homes for a long time."
Prosecutor Leffler tried to delve into the Gravelles' motivation for keeping 11 children and asked Ms. McPherson whether the "$56,000-a-year subsidy was appropriate."
But Judge Earl McGimpsey ordered the question withdrawn from the jury's consideration and huddled with the attorneys to discuss it.
The motivation issue arose later when the reading of Ms. Thompson's testimony resumed.
Ms. Thompson, through her attorney, had testified during the Juvenile Court hearing that the Gravelles "loved kids and they thought they had something to offer them." - OR THE KIDS HAD SOMETHING ($) TO OFFER THEM
Ms. Thompson had testified that "my first impression was you just kind of recoil" when seeing the cages the first time.
But she said she understood that the cages were built to protect the children and the Gravelles had the children's best interests at heart.
The Gravelles "did the best they could," Ms. Thompson had testified. "I thought safety had to take priority."
The reading of Ms. Thompson's testimony is scheduled to conclude this morning with the reading of the cross-examination by the prosecutor from Juvenile Court.
Judge McGimpsey told the jury he expected defense testimony to conclude today, with closing arguments and jury instructions set for Tuesday.
Social workers not held accountable in boy's death
Judge throws out lawsuit by father over son's death
McLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 20, 2006, pg. C2.
HAMILTON - Butler County Children Services could have done more to check on the safety of a 7-month-old boy who died in a trailer fire set by his mother.
But caseworkers can't be held responsible, a judge has ruled.
That decision will be appealed, a lawyer for the boy's father said Tuesday.
"It's a very bad decision," attorney Chris Pagan said. "He found that a social worker has no duty to investigate or to remove a child at risk. That decision runs contrary to an Ohio Supreme Court (ruling)."
Judge Andrew Nastoff of Butler County Common Pleas Court on Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by Justin Johnson Jr.'s father that alleged caseworkers were reckless when they didn't remove Justin from his mother Aimee Leonard's care in 2004.
Leonard had lost custody of a son and daughter since 1994 because of drug use, explosive behavior and failure to properly care for the children.
Leonard, 31, is serving seven years in prison for setting her Madison Township trailer on fire after an argument with Justin's father on Feb. 4, 2004, and leaving Justin behind to die.
Justin Johnson Sr., of Middletown, sued Children Services and two caseworkers, Karen Johnson-Jordan and Victoria Baldrick, asking in excess of $25,000 in compensatory damages. Baldrick was fired over the case; Johnson-Jordan, her supervisor, was demoted.
Nastoff ruled that the caseworker's inaction did not meet the legal definition of recklessness - that they knew the violent consequences of leaving Justin with his mother.
Leonard's extensive history with Children Services in the past did not establish that Justin was in immediate danger, which is required by law to remove him, Nastoff said.
Johnson and Baldrick investigated a complaint that Leonard had abused Justin, but couldn't substantiate it, the judge noted. Justin's grandmother also assured caseworkers that the child was receiving adequate care.
Pagan had argued that caseworkers failed to check into police reports that would have revealed Leonard's arrest for domestic violence on Justin's father.
Nastoff said that argument was meaningless. - WHY???
"Doubtlessly, defendants could have done more. Such an argument could be made in every case similar to the one at bar," Nastoff said.
McLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 20, 2006, pg. C2.
HAMILTON - Butler County Children Services could have done more to check on the safety of a 7-month-old boy who died in a trailer fire set by his mother.
But caseworkers can't be held responsible, a judge has ruled.
That decision will be appealed, a lawyer for the boy's father said Tuesday.
"It's a very bad decision," attorney Chris Pagan said. "He found that a social worker has no duty to investigate or to remove a child at risk. That decision runs contrary to an Ohio Supreme Court (ruling)."
Judge Andrew Nastoff of Butler County Common Pleas Court on Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by Justin Johnson Jr.'s father that alleged caseworkers were reckless when they didn't remove Justin from his mother Aimee Leonard's care in 2004.
Leonard had lost custody of a son and daughter since 1994 because of drug use, explosive behavior and failure to properly care for the children.
Leonard, 31, is serving seven years in prison for setting her Madison Township trailer on fire after an argument with Justin's father on Feb. 4, 2004, and leaving Justin behind to die.
Justin Johnson Sr., of Middletown, sued Children Services and two caseworkers, Karen Johnson-Jordan and Victoria Baldrick, asking in excess of $25,000 in compensatory damages. Baldrick was fired over the case; Johnson-Jordan, her supervisor, was demoted.
Nastoff ruled that the caseworker's inaction did not meet the legal definition of recklessness - that they knew the violent consequences of leaving Justin with his mother.
Leonard's extensive history with Children Services in the past did not establish that Justin was in immediate danger, which is required by law to remove him, Nastoff said.
Johnson and Baldrick investigated a complaint that Leonard had abused Justin, but couldn't substantiate it, the judge noted. Justin's grandmother also assured caseworkers that the child was receiving adequate care.
Pagan had argued that caseworkers failed to check into police reports that would have revealed Leonard's arrest for domestic violence on Justin's father.
Nastoff said that argument was meaningless. - WHY???
"Doubtlessly, defendants could have done more. Such an argument could be made in every case similar to the one at bar," Nastoff said.
Saying goodbye to a children's home
Home for the holidays:
Former residents of Summit County Children's Home look back on Christmas past
Price, Mark J. Akron Beacon Journal, Dec. 25, 2006, pg. E1.
Beneath twinkling lights and glittering tinsel, a simple gift was the greatest treasure.
The Christmas present wasn't expensive or extravagant.
Half the time, it wasn't even wrapped.
Yet boys and girls were so happy to receive that one little item. They never forgot the gift -- or the kindness of strangers.
The Summit County Children's Home always tried to make the holidays special for its young residents.
The red-brick complex at 264 S. Arlington St. in Akron was decorated in colorful lights, pine roping and silver bells.
Children rehearsed carols for the yuletide program. Christmas trees sparkled with handmade decorations. Santa Claus packed treats for a jolly appearance. The kitchen staff prepared a feast for hundreds.
Former residents have pleasant memories of Christmas at the old county orphanage, which stood from 1910 to 1997. To this day, they are thankful for what they received.
"It was a nice place to be when you didn't have anybody else to help you out," said Akron resident Arvilla Blair, 66, who entered the home at 2 weeks old in 1940 and lived there until age 14 in 1954. "They helped you out a lot. We always had good Christmases."
She recalls Marines taking children to department stores to buy a single gift for Christmas and then treating the youngsters to breakfast and lunch at restaurants.
"They would take us to Federman's and Polsky's and O'Neil's in downtown Akron," she said. "I picked out a dress I liked. It was a pretty blue dress."
In other years, Blair remembers choosing a doll and a nightgown. "We had a great time," she said.
For children who were especially well-behaved, there was a little financial incentive.
"You had to be good for a whole year to get a nickel for Christmas," Blair said.
Barberton resident Jim Wells Sr., 76, who lived at the children's home from 1932 to 1951, associates the Christmas of his youth with apples and oranges.
"A custodian dressed up like Santa Claus," he said. "That's where we would get the fruit. It was in a mesh stocking -- an apple and maybe a candy cane and two or three pieces of hard candy. Everybody would get one."
He remembers tall Christmas trees in the dining room and auditorium, two common areas in a building where young girls and boys lived in separate sections: Curly Top and Acorn.
"We made homemade ornaments and everything," Wells said. "We'd make them out of papier-mache. We'd make them out of Popsicle sticks. We'd make a cross and put people's names on it and hang it on there."
Special doll recalled
Akron resident Pauline Rodriguez, 65, who lived at the children's home from age 10 to 15, recalls the Christmas present that meant the most to her.
"I always wanted a black doll baby," she said.
After years of hoping, she had just about given up, but the gift arrived one Christmas.
There was no box, no bag, no wrapping paper. Just a plain doll staring up at her.
"It wasn't modern," she said. "It was one of these dolls from a long time ago. It had the big eyes, and hair on the head."
But she loved it just the same.
"It was a nice Christmas," she said.
Polite youngsters crowded the dining room for a traditional feast every holiday.
"We always had a special Christmas dinner," Wells said. "I mean, you ate high on the hog. We'd have either a roast or ham for Christmas dinner. We'd have all the specialties."
Some children, such as Blair, enjoyed an extra-special gift: a visit from a parent.
"My mother visited me there on Christmas," she said.
Over the decades, the institution housed thousands of children. About 400 youngsters resided there at its peak.
The place built character. Its residents were expected to do chores when they came home from school.
Some of the nicest presents they ever received were service projects from local groups.
The Akron Jaycees Wives, who sponsored Christmas parties at the home, earned high praise for generosity. One year, the women transformed a vacant space over the laundry into a recreation room.
"We had a jukebox, which every kid wanted in those days, and a pool table and pingpong table," Wells said.
Another year, the Akron City Club helped convert a large dormitory into separate rooms.
"They took plywood, and they made these cubicles," he said. "We had four boys to each room. Two sets of bunk beds. We had our own clothes closet. And we had a radio."
Retired Akron police detective Capt. Jerry Foys, 63, who lived at the home from 1946 to 1948, said his fondness for the home extends well beyond Christmas.
"I have good memories of the whole time that I was there," he said. "I have good memories of everybody loving me, feeding me well, treating me well, holding me."
Blair said she was treated with respect in her 14 years at the home, and really liked living there.
"If I had to do it all over as a child, I would want to do it again," she said.
Everyone was family there and looked out for one another, Wells agreed.
"I didn't know the difference between a white person and a black person," he said. "We were all brothers and sisters there. That's the way we were raised."
Beginning of home's end
During the 1950s, the children's home began to transfer youths out of the larger institution into smaller group homes. The modern preference was to place children in foster homes instead of a central location.
The children's home eventually converted into offices and changed its name to the Summit County Children Services Board in 1969. The South Arlington building was demolished in 1997 to make room for a $13 million headquarters.
Children's home alumni were given bricks from the building and souvenir platters.
Wells could barely look as the wrecking crew tore down his old home, filled with great memories of youth.
"I watched a little bit, and I said that's enough," he said.
Growing up there was a positive experience that helped him throughout life, Wells said.
"I think this world would be a totally different place if everybody had to live like that," he said.
"It was a great place," Foys said. "It really was."
"I did like it there at Christmas," Blair said. "It taught me to be thankful for everything I ever grew up to be."
Summit County Children's Home residents (from left) Dick, Nate, Bernard and Floyd decorate a Christmas tree in 1947 for the complex at 264 S. Arlington St., Akron. Below, carolers rehearse for the children's home's annual Christmas program in 1950.
Former residents of Summit County Children's Home look back on Christmas past
Price, Mark J. Akron Beacon Journal, Dec. 25, 2006, pg. E1.
Beneath twinkling lights and glittering tinsel, a simple gift was the greatest treasure.
The Christmas present wasn't expensive or extravagant.
Half the time, it wasn't even wrapped.
Yet boys and girls were so happy to receive that one little item. They never forgot the gift -- or the kindness of strangers.
The Summit County Children's Home always tried to make the holidays special for its young residents.
The red-brick complex at 264 S. Arlington St. in Akron was decorated in colorful lights, pine roping and silver bells.
Children rehearsed carols for the yuletide program. Christmas trees sparkled with handmade decorations. Santa Claus packed treats for a jolly appearance. The kitchen staff prepared a feast for hundreds.
Former residents have pleasant memories of Christmas at the old county orphanage, which stood from 1910 to 1997. To this day, they are thankful for what they received.
"It was a nice place to be when you didn't have anybody else to help you out," said Akron resident Arvilla Blair, 66, who entered the home at 2 weeks old in 1940 and lived there until age 14 in 1954. "They helped you out a lot. We always had good Christmases."
She recalls Marines taking children to department stores to buy a single gift for Christmas and then treating the youngsters to breakfast and lunch at restaurants.
"They would take us to Federman's and Polsky's and O'Neil's in downtown Akron," she said. "I picked out a dress I liked. It was a pretty blue dress."
In other years, Blair remembers choosing a doll and a nightgown. "We had a great time," she said.
For children who were especially well-behaved, there was a little financial incentive.
"You had to be good for a whole year to get a nickel for Christmas," Blair said.
Barberton resident Jim Wells Sr., 76, who lived at the children's home from 1932 to 1951, associates the Christmas of his youth with apples and oranges.
"A custodian dressed up like Santa Claus," he said. "That's where we would get the fruit. It was in a mesh stocking -- an apple and maybe a candy cane and two or three pieces of hard candy. Everybody would get one."
He remembers tall Christmas trees in the dining room and auditorium, two common areas in a building where young girls and boys lived in separate sections: Curly Top and Acorn.
"We made homemade ornaments and everything," Wells said. "We'd make them out of papier-mache. We'd make them out of Popsicle sticks. We'd make a cross and put people's names on it and hang it on there."
Special doll recalled
Akron resident Pauline Rodriguez, 65, who lived at the children's home from age 10 to 15, recalls the Christmas present that meant the most to her.
"I always wanted a black doll baby," she said.
After years of hoping, she had just about given up, but the gift arrived one Christmas.
There was no box, no bag, no wrapping paper. Just a plain doll staring up at her.
"It wasn't modern," she said. "It was one of these dolls from a long time ago. It had the big eyes, and hair on the head."
But she loved it just the same.
"It was a nice Christmas," she said.
Polite youngsters crowded the dining room for a traditional feast every holiday.
"We always had a special Christmas dinner," Wells said. "I mean, you ate high on the hog. We'd have either a roast or ham for Christmas dinner. We'd have all the specialties."
Some children, such as Blair, enjoyed an extra-special gift: a visit from a parent.
"My mother visited me there on Christmas," she said.
Over the decades, the institution housed thousands of children. About 400 youngsters resided there at its peak.
The place built character. Its residents were expected to do chores when they came home from school.
Some of the nicest presents they ever received were service projects from local groups.
The Akron Jaycees Wives, who sponsored Christmas parties at the home, earned high praise for generosity. One year, the women transformed a vacant space over the laundry into a recreation room.
"We had a jukebox, which every kid wanted in those days, and a pool table and pingpong table," Wells said.
Another year, the Akron City Club helped convert a large dormitory into separate rooms.
"They took plywood, and they made these cubicles," he said. "We had four boys to each room. Two sets of bunk beds. We had our own clothes closet. And we had a radio."
Retired Akron police detective Capt. Jerry Foys, 63, who lived at the home from 1946 to 1948, said his fondness for the home extends well beyond Christmas.
"I have good memories of the whole time that I was there," he said. "I have good memories of everybody loving me, feeding me well, treating me well, holding me."
Blair said she was treated with respect in her 14 years at the home, and really liked living there.
"If I had to do it all over as a child, I would want to do it again," she said.
Everyone was family there and looked out for one another, Wells agreed.
"I didn't know the difference between a white person and a black person," he said. "We were all brothers and sisters there. That's the way we were raised."
Beginning of home's end
During the 1950s, the children's home began to transfer youths out of the larger institution into smaller group homes. The modern preference was to place children in foster homes instead of a central location.
The children's home eventually converted into offices and changed its name to the Summit County Children Services Board in 1969. The South Arlington building was demolished in 1997 to make room for a $13 million headquarters.
Children's home alumni were given bricks from the building and souvenir platters.
Wells could barely look as the wrecking crew tore down his old home, filled with great memories of youth.
"I watched a little bit, and I said that's enough," he said.
Growing up there was a positive experience that helped him throughout life, Wells said.
"I think this world would be a totally different place if everybody had to live like that," he said.
"It was a great place," Foys said. "It really was."
"I did like it there at Christmas," Blair said. "It taught me to be thankful for everything I ever grew up to be."
Summit County Children's Home residents (from left) Dick, Nate, Bernard and Floyd decorate a Christmas tree in 1947 for the complex at 264 S. Arlington St., Akron. Below, carolers rehearse for the children's home's annual Christmas program in 1950.
Is she the responsible party or a scapegoat?
Baby's death in Delaware County
Social worker learns fate today
Wilson, Dana. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 28, 2006, News pg. D1.
Delaware County commissioners are expected to decide today whether to punish a child-welfare supervisor in connection with a case in which an 11-month-old boy died.
Lee Hayes, who oversees a Children Services unit that investigates child abuse, was placed on paid leave Tuesday as the county reviewed the agency's response to reports that Nicholas Goodrich might have been abused. The boy died Dec. 12.
Commissioner Jim Ward said he expects the board will take disciplinary action against Hayes.
Hayes, who has worked for the county since 1992, faces punishment ranging from a letter of reprimand to firing, Ward said.
"I don't want this to happen again," he said.
Goodrich suffered injuries to his brain. Nicholas' mother, 22-year-old Rachel Ewers, of Delaware, and her live-in boyfriend, Raytone Wilson, 21, have been charged in the death.
A babysitter has said she called Children Services workers in Franklin and Delaware counties before the boy died with her suspicions of abuse.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is investigating how both agencies dealt with at least three calls reporting possible abuse of Nicholas.
Jon Allen, a spokesman for the state agency, said investigators will look at what was in the case file involving Nicholas and also will talk to workers.
Yesterday, Hayes and her attorney declined to comment after attending a private pre-disciplinary hearing attended by the county's administrator and the Job and Family Services director.
Kevin Williams, the county director of administrative services, also attended yesterday's hearing, which he described as a due-process meeting.
"We are required to submit to the employee what we believe has occurred," Williams said, adding that his office will make a recommendation at the end of its review.
The commissioners ultimately will decide what action to take.
Williams said Hayes was placed on paid administrative leave to separate her from other office employees during the internal review.
"A this point, it's still a review," Williams said. "We know some facts, but we don't know all the facts."
Social worker learns fate today
Wilson, Dana. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 28, 2006, News pg. D1.
Delaware County commissioners are expected to decide today whether to punish a child-welfare supervisor in connection with a case in which an 11-month-old boy died.
Lee Hayes, who oversees a Children Services unit that investigates child abuse, was placed on paid leave Tuesday as the county reviewed the agency's response to reports that Nicholas Goodrich might have been abused. The boy died Dec. 12.
Commissioner Jim Ward said he expects the board will take disciplinary action against Hayes.
Hayes, who has worked for the county since 1992, faces punishment ranging from a letter of reprimand to firing, Ward said.
"I don't want this to happen again," he said.
Goodrich suffered injuries to his brain. Nicholas' mother, 22-year-old Rachel Ewers, of Delaware, and her live-in boyfriend, Raytone Wilson, 21, have been charged in the death.
A babysitter has said she called Children Services workers in Franklin and Delaware counties before the boy died with her suspicions of abuse.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is investigating how both agencies dealt with at least three calls reporting possible abuse of Nicholas.
Jon Allen, a spokesman for the state agency, said investigators will look at what was in the case file involving Nicholas and also will talk to workers.
Yesterday, Hayes and her attorney declined to comment after attending a private pre-disciplinary hearing attended by the county's administrator and the Job and Family Services director.
Kevin Williams, the county director of administrative services, also attended yesterday's hearing, which he described as a due-process meeting.
"We are required to submit to the employee what we believe has occurred," Williams said, adding that his office will make a recommendation at the end of its review.
The commissioners ultimately will decide what action to take.
Williams said Hayes was placed on paid administrative leave to separate her from other office employees during the internal review.
"A this point, it's still a review," Williams said. "We know some facts, but we don't know all the facts."
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Foster care issues should be addressed by the faith-based community
Bridge the gap: Foster children and the faith-based community
Hatchett, Glenda. Call & Post, Nov. 23-29, 2006, Iss. 47, Commentary pg. A5.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Two popular biblical sayings, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older, he shall not depart from those ways" and "Honor thy mother and father" found in Proverbs 22:6 and Exodus 20:12, respectively, focus on the importance of child rearing and parent-child relationships.
The faith-based community has always encouraged parents to instill morals and values in their children so that they will hold to those teachings as they become adults. In addition, children are warned to show their parents honor and respect. These scriptures have long served as important principles for parents and children in the church.
Although these passages have been widely accepted by many parents and children alike, they both assume that parents are in the picture. Now, consider a situation where there are no parents involved ... who is there to raise up the child and teach them the principles to live the way God desires them to? Who is that child supposed to honor, when there is no one there to respect? For more than 500,000 children across the United States who are in the foster care system as a result of abuse or neglect, they don't have to imagine this - it is their reality.
For many years, the church has been a pillar in the community and stood at the forefront in tackling many issues that plague communities across the country. From civil rights to voting rights, the church has always taken a stand in changing statistics and making a difference. The church deemed these issues important and has taken on the responsibility of doing something about them.
One issue, however, that has not gotten as much attention is that of foster care and the welfare of children who are placed in the system. It's not because it is not as prevalent as other issues we face today, because it, indeed, is. Most of us know of a child who is living in a foster home or a group home, but we don't always see the effect it has on not only the child involved, but also the overall impact on the well being of the community.
As with the other issues the church has addressed, I encourage the faith-based community to get involved in the issue of child welfare, and there are many ways to help.
First, it is important to build awareness. In addition to the more than 500,000 children who are currently in the foster care system, each year 3 million children are reported abused and neglected in the United States - that's nearly 9,000 children every single day. Nationally, 39 percent of those children are African Americans - a disproportionate rate compared to the African-American U.S. population.
Once you are aware, you can then act. One way is to get involved with the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association. There are currently more than 50,000 CASA volunteers - everyday heroes who are advocating in court on the behalf of abused and neglected children to help ensure they grow up securely in permanent and loving homes.
There are over 940 local CASA or Guardian ad Litem programs throughout the country so there is probably one near you. As a church, you can work with a CASA/GAL program to host events or have a CASA representative speak to your congregation about the issue of foster care.
As individual members in the church, you can make a difference by becoming a CASA volunteer. Last year, CASA volunteers helped over 225,000 children. However, with more than 500,000 children in foster care, more than half of these vulnerable children still don't have anyone to help "train them in the way they should go."
I pray that the issue of foster care will be taken on by the faith-based community so that the lives of children in communities across the country can be changed and positively impacted for generations. When a child has no permanent home, it is hard for them to have a permanent church home, as well.
Just think, by standing up for a child in the foster care system, not only can you help them find a church home where they can grow and develop spiritually, but also help them find a home to live where they can be safe, loved, nurtured and encouraged to become all that God has planned for them to be.
For more information about National CASA or the local CASA program in your area, call (888) 805-8457 or visit online at www.NationalCASA.org
[Author Affiliation]
By JUDGE GLENDA A. HATCHETT
[Author Affiliation]
Hatchett, author of "Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say!" and the presiding judge of the nationally-syndicated court television series "Judge Hatchett," which is in its seventh season, is the national spokesperson for the National CASA Association.
Hatchett, Glenda. Call & Post, Nov. 23-29, 2006, Iss. 47, Commentary pg. A5.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Two popular biblical sayings, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older, he shall not depart from those ways" and "Honor thy mother and father" found in Proverbs 22:6 and Exodus 20:12, respectively, focus on the importance of child rearing and parent-child relationships.
The faith-based community has always encouraged parents to instill morals and values in their children so that they will hold to those teachings as they become adults. In addition, children are warned to show their parents honor and respect. These scriptures have long served as important principles for parents and children in the church.
Although these passages have been widely accepted by many parents and children alike, they both assume that parents are in the picture. Now, consider a situation where there are no parents involved ... who is there to raise up the child and teach them the principles to live the way God desires them to? Who is that child supposed to honor, when there is no one there to respect? For more than 500,000 children across the United States who are in the foster care system as a result of abuse or neglect, they don't have to imagine this - it is their reality.
For many years, the church has been a pillar in the community and stood at the forefront in tackling many issues that plague communities across the country. From civil rights to voting rights, the church has always taken a stand in changing statistics and making a difference. The church deemed these issues important and has taken on the responsibility of doing something about them.
One issue, however, that has not gotten as much attention is that of foster care and the welfare of children who are placed in the system. It's not because it is not as prevalent as other issues we face today, because it, indeed, is. Most of us know of a child who is living in a foster home or a group home, but we don't always see the effect it has on not only the child involved, but also the overall impact on the well being of the community.
As with the other issues the church has addressed, I encourage the faith-based community to get involved in the issue of child welfare, and there are many ways to help.
First, it is important to build awareness. In addition to the more than 500,000 children who are currently in the foster care system, each year 3 million children are reported abused and neglected in the United States - that's nearly 9,000 children every single day. Nationally, 39 percent of those children are African Americans - a disproportionate rate compared to the African-American U.S. population.
Once you are aware, you can then act. One way is to get involved with the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association. There are currently more than 50,000 CASA volunteers - everyday heroes who are advocating in court on the behalf of abused and neglected children to help ensure they grow up securely in permanent and loving homes.
There are over 940 local CASA or Guardian ad Litem programs throughout the country so there is probably one near you. As a church, you can work with a CASA/GAL program to host events or have a CASA representative speak to your congregation about the issue of foster care.
As individual members in the church, you can make a difference by becoming a CASA volunteer. Last year, CASA volunteers helped over 225,000 children. However, with more than 500,000 children in foster care, more than half of these vulnerable children still don't have anyone to help "train them in the way they should go."
I pray that the issue of foster care will be taken on by the faith-based community so that the lives of children in communities across the country can be changed and positively impacted for generations. When a child has no permanent home, it is hard for them to have a permanent church home, as well.
Just think, by standing up for a child in the foster care system, not only can you help them find a church home where they can grow and develop spiritually, but also help them find a home to live where they can be safe, loved, nurtured and encouraged to become all that God has planned for them to be.
For more information about National CASA or the local CASA program in your area, call (888) 805-8457 or visit online at www.NationalCASA.org
[Author Affiliation]
By JUDGE GLENDA A. HATCHETT
[Author Affiliation]
Hatchett, author of "Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say!" and the presiding judge of the nationally-syndicated court television series "Judge Hatchett," which is in its seventh season, is the national spokesperson for the National CASA Association.
Baby dies when calls to report abuse are ignored
Delaware Co. child-welfare official placed on leave after death of infant
Wilson, Dana. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 27, 2006.
DELAWARE, Ohio — Officials placed a supervisor with Delaware County Children Services on leave yesterday pending a review of the agency’s response to reports of possible mistreatment that led to the death of an 11-month-old child.
A pre-disciplinary hearing is scheduled for today for Lee Hayes, who faces punishment if commissioners decide the agency mishandled calls regarding Nicholas Goodrich.
The boy died Dec. 12 of injuries to his brain. Nicholas’ mother, 22-year-old Rachel Ewers, of Delaware, and her live-in boyfriend, Raytone Wilson, 21, have been charged in the death.
Nicholas’ death also has sparked a review by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services into how children services agencies in Delaware and Franklin counties dealt with at least three prior calls about the infant.
A separate internal probe of the Delaware County agency led the county commissioners to place Hayes on paid administrative leave.
Hayes oversees employees who receive calls and investigate allegations of child abuse and/or neglect. She has worked for the county since 1992.
"We feel there is sufficient evidence for discipline," Commissioner Jim Ward said. He wouldn’t give details but hinted at further action at the board’s Thursday meeting.
Police interviewed more than 40 witnesses in Nicholas’ case, including a baby sitter who said she was concerned for Nicholas’ well-being and called both counties three weeks before he died.
The infant had heavy bruises on the right side of his head, particularly on his right ear, said the woman, who asked not to be named because she fears for her safety.
The man authorities accused of physically abusing and eventually killing Nicholas now sits in jail. Wilson faces one count of aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification, one count of murder and two counts of endangering children.
Ewers is charged with involuntary manslaughter and two counts of endangering children.
Prosecutors say the couple’s crimes occurred between Nov. 1 and Dec. 12, when they carried the lifeless child into the emergency room at Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware.
It’s possible that more Children Services employees could face discipline for their actions in Nicholas’ case, Ward said.
"This review is to make the department better," Ward said. "It is not a witch hunt to find somebody to blame. We are taking this review seriously, and really the intention is that something like this never occurs again."
Hayes, 44, declined to comment yesterday when reached at home.
At today’s hearing, Hayes will be given the chance to present her side to the commissioners, Ward said. The meeting is closed to the public.
Her supervisor position is being filled temporarily by Patricia Clements, whose most recent work for the Delaware County Department of Job and Family Services has been in adoption and foster care, said Mona Reilly, director of the department.
Reilly said the county’s internal review continues and includes evaluating the steps Children Services employees take in responding to complaints of abuse and neglect.
Franklin County Children Services received a report about Nicholas last month but did not investigate because the mother had by then moved to Delaware.
Agency director John Saros has requested an administrative inquiry into how the matter was handled.
Wilson, Dana. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 27, 2006.
DELAWARE, Ohio — Officials placed a supervisor with Delaware County Children Services on leave yesterday pending a review of the agency’s response to reports of possible mistreatment that led to the death of an 11-month-old child.
A pre-disciplinary hearing is scheduled for today for Lee Hayes, who faces punishment if commissioners decide the agency mishandled calls regarding Nicholas Goodrich.
The boy died Dec. 12 of injuries to his brain. Nicholas’ mother, 22-year-old Rachel Ewers, of Delaware, and her live-in boyfriend, Raytone Wilson, 21, have been charged in the death.
Nicholas’ death also has sparked a review by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services into how children services agencies in Delaware and Franklin counties dealt with at least three prior calls about the infant.
A separate internal probe of the Delaware County agency led the county commissioners to place Hayes on paid administrative leave.
Hayes oversees employees who receive calls and investigate allegations of child abuse and/or neglect. She has worked for the county since 1992.
"We feel there is sufficient evidence for discipline," Commissioner Jim Ward said. He wouldn’t give details but hinted at further action at the board’s Thursday meeting.
Police interviewed more than 40 witnesses in Nicholas’ case, including a baby sitter who said she was concerned for Nicholas’ well-being and called both counties three weeks before he died.
The infant had heavy bruises on the right side of his head, particularly on his right ear, said the woman, who asked not to be named because she fears for her safety.
The man authorities accused of physically abusing and eventually killing Nicholas now sits in jail. Wilson faces one count of aggravated murder with a death-penalty specification, one count of murder and two counts of endangering children.
Ewers is charged with involuntary manslaughter and two counts of endangering children.
Prosecutors say the couple’s crimes occurred between Nov. 1 and Dec. 12, when they carried the lifeless child into the emergency room at Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware.
It’s possible that more Children Services employees could face discipline for their actions in Nicholas’ case, Ward said.
"This review is to make the department better," Ward said. "It is not a witch hunt to find somebody to blame. We are taking this review seriously, and really the intention is that something like this never occurs again."
Hayes, 44, declined to comment yesterday when reached at home.
At today’s hearing, Hayes will be given the chance to present her side to the commissioners, Ward said. The meeting is closed to the public.
Her supervisor position is being filled temporarily by Patricia Clements, whose most recent work for the Delaware County Department of Job and Family Services has been in adoption and foster care, said Mona Reilly, director of the department.
Reilly said the county’s internal review continues and includes evaluating the steps Children Services employees take in responding to complaints of abuse and neglect.
Franklin County Children Services received a report about Nicholas last month but did not investigate because the mother had by then moved to Delaware.
Agency director John Saros has requested an administrative inquiry into how the matter was handled.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Gravelles will never be able to adopt again
Gravelles guilty of endangering, abuse
Jury clears couple of 13 of 24 counts, but prosecutor sees 'victory'
Puente, Mark. Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 23, 2006, pg. A1.
The so-called cages in Michael and Sharen Gravelle's home persuaded a jury to convict the couple on only some of the 24 child-endangering charges they faced.The Gravelles originally were indicted on 30 charges for keeping their children in the enclosures. (Six charges were dropped before the trial.)
A jury convicted them Friday of 11 counts, but prosecutors say that should stop them from ever adopting again.
The Huron County jury found the Gravelles each guilty of four felony counts of child endangering, two misdemeanor counts of child endangering and five misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
Although the Gravelles were each acquitted on 13 charges, the jury did the right thing, the prosecutor's office said.
Assistant Prosecutor Daivia Kasper said she is satisfied with the verdicts.
"Four felonies on each is still a victory for the state and the children," she said. "I hope the Gravelles would be prevented fromadopting or fostering children."
Prosecutor Russ Leffler is traveling abroad and could not be reached. He told jurors Tuesday that the case was about the beds, not the harsh discipline in the home.
County officials removed the 11 special-needs children from the Gravelle home in September 2005 after they received a tip and found the brightly painted, chicken-wire-enclosed beds in which some of the children slept.
The couple said they built the enclosed beds to prevent the children from hurting themselves and others. The couple lost custody of the adopted children in March.
Two older children testified during the trial that the Gravelles hit them with a wooden paddle, hosed them with water outside in freezing temperatures and dunked the head of a girl with Down syndrome into a toilet. The jury found each of the Gravelles guilty on three charges - one a felony - related to that child.
Four of the youngsters testified they were not forced to sleep in the enclosed beds and missed their adoptive parents, causing tears for some jurors.
Defense attorneys say they plan to appeal.
When Judge Earl McGimpsey last week reduced the eight felonies that the couple initially faced to misdemeanors, he said the case has grounds for appeal.
"I don't think the last word has been written," defense lawyer Ken Myers said after the verdict.
The Gravelles did not testify but have said they took on so many needy children because no one else wanted them.
Myers said the verdict does not condemn the beds. "It was the use of discipline," he said. "The jury clearly did not find the beds abusive."
Richard Drucker, attorney for Michael Gravelle, said the couple is "greatly disappointed."
Drucker said he is baffled as to why the jury found the couple guilty on some charges, but not others.
"In many respects, the defendants could consider this a victory in that so many counts were thrown out," Drucker said.
Jurors declined to comment
Friday and quickly left the courthouse with a sheriff's escort.The Gravelles showed no emotion during the reading of the verdicts. Michael Gravelle rocked in his chair, stroked his white beard and stared at the jury. Sharen Gravelle looked down at the defense table and took notes.
The couple, escorted by a sheriff's deputy and Myers, declined to comment while dashing from the courthouse. As photographers swarmed around them, Sharen Gravelle, with tears welling in her eyes and her voice cracking, asked Myers, who was cradling her, to "get them out of my face."
Debbie Nottke, a foster mother to one of the older children who testified against the Gravelles, stood outside the courtroom smiling after the verdicts were read. "He is going to be very happy," Nottke said of the child.
The Gravelles will have about seven weeks to prepare for a possible jail term. McGimpsey allowed them to remain free on bond and will sentence them Feb. 12.
Elaine Thompson, the Gravelles' private social worker, faces a February trial on 32 charges of complicity to commit child endangering and failure to report abuse. She treated the children for about four years and knew about the beds.
Her attorney, Marilu Laubenthal, declined to comment.
Jury clears couple of 13 of 24 counts, but prosecutor sees 'victory'
Puente, Mark. Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec. 23, 2006, pg. A1.
The so-called cages in Michael and Sharen Gravelle's home persuaded a jury to convict the couple on only some of the 24 child-endangering charges they faced.The Gravelles originally were indicted on 30 charges for keeping their children in the enclosures. (Six charges were dropped before the trial.)
A jury convicted them Friday of 11 counts, but prosecutors say that should stop them from ever adopting again.
The Huron County jury found the Gravelles each guilty of four felony counts of child endangering, two misdemeanor counts of child endangering and five misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
Although the Gravelles were each acquitted on 13 charges, the jury did the right thing, the prosecutor's office said.
Assistant Prosecutor Daivia Kasper said she is satisfied with the verdicts.
"Four felonies on each is still a victory for the state and the children," she said. "I hope the Gravelles would be prevented fromadopting or fostering children."
Prosecutor Russ Leffler is traveling abroad and could not be reached. He told jurors Tuesday that the case was about the beds, not the harsh discipline in the home.
County officials removed the 11 special-needs children from the Gravelle home in September 2005 after they received a tip and found the brightly painted, chicken-wire-enclosed beds in which some of the children slept.
The couple said they built the enclosed beds to prevent the children from hurting themselves and others. The couple lost custody of the adopted children in March.
Two older children testified during the trial that the Gravelles hit them with a wooden paddle, hosed them with water outside in freezing temperatures and dunked the head of a girl with Down syndrome into a toilet. The jury found each of the Gravelles guilty on three charges - one a felony - related to that child.
Four of the youngsters testified they were not forced to sleep in the enclosed beds and missed their adoptive parents, causing tears for some jurors.
Defense attorneys say they plan to appeal.
When Judge Earl McGimpsey last week reduced the eight felonies that the couple initially faced to misdemeanors, he said the case has grounds for appeal.
"I don't think the last word has been written," defense lawyer Ken Myers said after the verdict.
The Gravelles did not testify but have said they took on so many needy children because no one else wanted them.
Myers said the verdict does not condemn the beds. "It was the use of discipline," he said. "The jury clearly did not find the beds abusive."
Richard Drucker, attorney for Michael Gravelle, said the couple is "greatly disappointed."
Drucker said he is baffled as to why the jury found the couple guilty on some charges, but not others.
"In many respects, the defendants could consider this a victory in that so many counts were thrown out," Drucker said.
Jurors declined to comment
Friday and quickly left the courthouse with a sheriff's escort.The Gravelles showed no emotion during the reading of the verdicts. Michael Gravelle rocked in his chair, stroked his white beard and stared at the jury. Sharen Gravelle looked down at the defense table and took notes.
The couple, escorted by a sheriff's deputy and Myers, declined to comment while dashing from the courthouse. As photographers swarmed around them, Sharen Gravelle, with tears welling in her eyes and her voice cracking, asked Myers, who was cradling her, to "get them out of my face."
Debbie Nottke, a foster mother to one of the older children who testified against the Gravelles, stood outside the courtroom smiling after the verdicts were read. "He is going to be very happy," Nottke said of the child.
The Gravelles will have about seven weeks to prepare for a possible jail term. McGimpsey allowed them to remain free on bond and will sentence them Feb. 12.
Elaine Thompson, the Gravelles' private social worker, faces a February trial on 32 charges of complicity to commit child endangering and failure to report abuse. She treated the children for about four years and knew about the beds.
Her attorney, Marilu Laubenthal, declined to comment.
Michael wishes his brother Marcus was still alive
CUSTODY BATTLE ROOTED IN MARCUS CASE
Cincinnati Post, The (OH)December 21, 2006Author: Dave Greber, Middletown Journal
Opening a custody battle involving the siblings of Marcus Fiesel "exacerbates the trauma" to Marcus' older brother, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday in Butler County Juvenile Court.
Donna Trevino, the Middletown mother of the 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy who died in August in a closet in his foster home, is seeking to regain custody of her two children. Her lawyer and the county guardians of Michael, 11, and Peaches, 1, are requesting that court proceedings be closed to the public.
Dr. Greg Taliaferro, who evaluated Michael in late September, testified Wednesday that placing Michael on the stand to testify during the custody case and opening the disposition hearing to the public could amplify his mental conditions, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
"Potentially, media coverage could exacerbate the trauma," Taliaferro said. "It could sort of keep it alive."
Several media companies -- including the Journal's parent company, Cox Ohio Publishing -- are fighting to keep the juvenile court proceedings open to the public.Through most of Taliaferro's testimony Wednesday, Trevino nodded her head, occasionally dabbing her eyes with a doo-rag worn by her boyfriend, Harry Cowgill.
Taliaferro testified Michael finds it confusing when asked about his brother's death, and that he said one of his three wishes was "that my brother wasn't dead."
"He's clearly struggling with this, which is understandable," Taliaferro said.
Magistrate Richard Landis said he will consider evidence and testimony from Wednesday's hearing during the next two weeks. A decision is not likely before the end of the year.
Landis also is expected to rule whether Michael could testify via a video recording.Marcus died in early August. His foster parents, David and Liz Carroll, have been charged with murder and other crimes. Prosecutors allege they wrapped the boy in a blanket and left him in a closet of their home while they went to a reunion in Williamstown, Ky.
Cincinnati Post, The (OH)December 21, 2006Author: Dave Greber, Middletown Journal
Opening a custody battle involving the siblings of Marcus Fiesel "exacerbates the trauma" to Marcus' older brother, a psychiatrist testified Wednesday in Butler County Juvenile Court.
Donna Trevino, the Middletown mother of the 3-year-old developmentally disabled boy who died in August in a closet in his foster home, is seeking to regain custody of her two children. Her lawyer and the county guardians of Michael, 11, and Peaches, 1, are requesting that court proceedings be closed to the public.
Dr. Greg Taliaferro, who evaluated Michael in late September, testified Wednesday that placing Michael on the stand to testify during the custody case and opening the disposition hearing to the public could amplify his mental conditions, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
"Potentially, media coverage could exacerbate the trauma," Taliaferro said. "It could sort of keep it alive."
Several media companies -- including the Journal's parent company, Cox Ohio Publishing -- are fighting to keep the juvenile court proceedings open to the public.Through most of Taliaferro's testimony Wednesday, Trevino nodded her head, occasionally dabbing her eyes with a doo-rag worn by her boyfriend, Harry Cowgill.
Taliaferro testified Michael finds it confusing when asked about his brother's death, and that he said one of his three wishes was "that my brother wasn't dead."
"He's clearly struggling with this, which is understandable," Taliaferro said.
Magistrate Richard Landis said he will consider evidence and testimony from Wednesday's hearing during the next two weeks. A decision is not likely before the end of the year.
Landis also is expected to rule whether Michael could testify via a video recording.Marcus died in early August. His foster parents, David and Liz Carroll, have been charged with murder and other crimes. Prosecutors allege they wrapped the boy in a blanket and left him in a closet of their home while they went to a reunion in Williamstown, Ky.
Helen Jones-Kelley to head ODJFS
Local agency chief gets state post
Helen Jones-Kelley will be director of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services
Smith, Joanne. Dayton Daily News, Dec. 22, 2006, pg. A4.
COLUMBUS — Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Montgomery County Department of Jobs and Family Services, has been selected to run a key department in Ohio Gov.-elect Ted Strickland's administration.
Strickland and his transition chairman, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, announced Thursday the appointment of Jones-Kelley as director of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Columbus Councilwoman Mary Hudson was picked as Ohio's new director of Insurance.
"They will be steadfast advocates for all Ohioans, and join us in our efforts to turn around Ohio," Strickland said.
Jones-Kelley, 55, and Hudson, 43, will earn between $54,900 and $143,100, said Keith Dailey, spokesman for Strickland.
Hudson's appointment marks the first time an openly gay Ohioan has been asked to hold a Cabinet-level position, according to Equality Ohio, a group envisioning government that protects all people regardless of sexual orientation.
The appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the Ohio Senate.
Jones-Kelley, who in college wanted to teach high school English, takes on one of the state's largest departments and one of the most important.
"I believe everyone is born with a purpose. For me, it has always been about being a voice for those who can't raise their own," Jones-Kelley said.
The department has 3,800 fulltime employees with an annual budget of $17 billion, drawn from state and federal funds, said Jon Allen, department spokesman.
The director oversees the state's $12 billion Medicaid program, heath insurance for poor elderly and disabled. Child support, child welfare, adoption and foster care, food stamps and cash assistance for the needy also are under the department's umbrella along with unemployment compensation, work force development and labor market information.
The Montgomery County Department of Jobs and Family Services and Children Services had just merged when Jones-Kelley took over leadership there in May. She had served as the executive director of the Montgomery County Children Services Department since 1995. She is a licensed attorney.
"Our loss is the entire state's gain," Montgomery County Administrator Deborah Feldman said. "We know she will do a great job for the state."
Jones-Kelley said she will likely work both jobs during the transition period.
Helen Jones-Kelley will be director of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services
Smith, Joanne. Dayton Daily News, Dec. 22, 2006, pg. A4.
COLUMBUS — Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Montgomery County Department of Jobs and Family Services, has been selected to run a key department in Ohio Gov.-elect Ted Strickland's administration.
Strickland and his transition chairman, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, announced Thursday the appointment of Jones-Kelley as director of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Columbus Councilwoman Mary Hudson was picked as Ohio's new director of Insurance.
"They will be steadfast advocates for all Ohioans, and join us in our efforts to turn around Ohio," Strickland said.
Jones-Kelley, 55, and Hudson, 43, will earn between $54,900 and $143,100, said Keith Dailey, spokesman for Strickland.
Hudson's appointment marks the first time an openly gay Ohioan has been asked to hold a Cabinet-level position, according to Equality Ohio, a group envisioning government that protects all people regardless of sexual orientation.
The appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the Ohio Senate.
Jones-Kelley, who in college wanted to teach high school English, takes on one of the state's largest departments and one of the most important.
"I believe everyone is born with a purpose. For me, it has always been about being a voice for those who can't raise their own," Jones-Kelley said.
The department has 3,800 fulltime employees with an annual budget of $17 billion, drawn from state and federal funds, said Jon Allen, department spokesman.
The director oversees the state's $12 billion Medicaid program, heath insurance for poor elderly and disabled. Child support, child welfare, adoption and foster care, food stamps and cash assistance for the needy also are under the department's umbrella along with unemployment compensation, work force development and labor market information.
The Montgomery County Department of Jobs and Family Services and Children Services had just merged when Jones-Kelley took over leadership there in May. She had served as the executive director of the Montgomery County Children Services Department since 1995. She is a licensed attorney.
"Our loss is the entire state's gain," Montgomery County Administrator Deborah Feldman said. "We know she will do a great job for the state."
Jones-Kelley said she will likely work both jobs during the transition period.
Butler County off the hook
County ruled not liable in child's death:
Marcus Fiesel's mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against his foster parents, placement agency.
Greber, Dave. Dayton Daily News, Dec. 22, 2006, pg. A7.
HAMILTON — A Butler County judge ruled Thursday that Marcus Fiesel's mother and attorney did not make its case that the county and its children services board were liable for the 3-year-old Middletown boy's death while in foster care.
Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage on Thursday dismissed the county and agency from a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit filed Sept. 5 on behalf of Marcus' mother, Donna Trevino.
The lawsuit sought damages from foster parents Liz and David Carroll Jr., the couple's live-in girlfriend Amy Baker, Lifeway for Youth, the private agency that placed Marcus with the Carrolls in May, Butler County and the Butler County Children Services Board.
Sage said Trevino and her attorney Kevin Hughes were unable to provide enough evidence to make the county liable for any wrongdoing.
Hughes could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Prosecutors say the Carrolls locked Marcus in a closet of their Union Twp. home — wrapped in a blanket and bound by packing tape — for two days in early August while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky.
When they returned, prosecutors say David Carroll Jr. took the body and burned it in Brown County.
Murder trials for the Carrolls are scheduled for early next year in Clermont County.
The lawsuit still seeks damages from the Carrolls, Baker and Lifeway for Youth.
Marcus Fiesel's mother filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against his foster parents, placement agency.
Greber, Dave. Dayton Daily News, Dec. 22, 2006, pg. A7.
HAMILTON — A Butler County judge ruled Thursday that Marcus Fiesel's mother and attorney did not make its case that the county and its children services board were liable for the 3-year-old Middletown boy's death while in foster care.
Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage on Thursday dismissed the county and agency from a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit filed Sept. 5 on behalf of Marcus' mother, Donna Trevino.
The lawsuit sought damages from foster parents Liz and David Carroll Jr., the couple's live-in girlfriend Amy Baker, Lifeway for Youth, the private agency that placed Marcus with the Carrolls in May, Butler County and the Butler County Children Services Board.
Sage said Trevino and her attorney Kevin Hughes were unable to provide enough evidence to make the county liable for any wrongdoing.
Hughes could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Prosecutors say the Carrolls locked Marcus in a closet of their Union Twp. home — wrapped in a blanket and bound by packing tape — for two days in early August while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky.
When they returned, prosecutors say David Carroll Jr. took the body and burned it in Brown County.
Murder trials for the Carrolls are scheduled for early next year in Clermont County.
The lawsuit still seeks damages from the Carrolls, Baker and Lifeway for Youth.
What will happen to Marcus' siblings?
Arguments heard over Fiesel access
McLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 21, 2006, pg. B2.
A Butler County juvenile court magistrate will decide in the new year whether the media can have access to hearings to determine if the siblings of a boy who died in foster care will be returned to their mother. Magistrate Richard Landis heard arguments Wednesday for and against keeping the hearings secret.
The Enquirer is fighting attempts by the children's attorney, Debra Rothstein, to keep reporters out. Greg Taliaferro, a Cincinnati psychologist who examined 11-year-old Michael after his brother Marcus Fiesel's death, said that press coverage of the proceedings might traumatize the child. But, he said, adverse effects were not inevitable.
Rothstein wants Landis to conduct a private interview with the boy before he decides the issue. Peaches, at a year old, is too young. Both children are in a foster home.
If Landis decides to open the hearings, Rothstein wants most personal information about the children - including their names and feelings about their mother and reunification with her - to be excluded from public disclosure.
The Enquirer's lawyer, Jack Greiner, objected. He said excluding that information would amount to closing the hearing.
Jill Meyer, an attorney representing several area television stations and newspapers, argued that the public has the right to know that the court's handling of the Fiesel children's custody will be done properly. "We know that it didn't work out for Marcus," she said.
His foster parents, Liz and David Carroll, are jailed on murder and other charges involving the 3-year-old boy's death.
McLaughlin, Sheila. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 21, 2006, pg. B2.
A Butler County juvenile court magistrate will decide in the new year whether the media can have access to hearings to determine if the siblings of a boy who died in foster care will be returned to their mother. Magistrate Richard Landis heard arguments Wednesday for and against keeping the hearings secret.
The Enquirer is fighting attempts by the children's attorney, Debra Rothstein, to keep reporters out. Greg Taliaferro, a Cincinnati psychologist who examined 11-year-old Michael after his brother Marcus Fiesel's death, said that press coverage of the proceedings might traumatize the child. But, he said, adverse effects were not inevitable.
Rothstein wants Landis to conduct a private interview with the boy before he decides the issue. Peaches, at a year old, is too young. Both children are in a foster home.
If Landis decides to open the hearings, Rothstein wants most personal information about the children - including their names and feelings about their mother and reunification with her - to be excluded from public disclosure.
The Enquirer's lawyer, Jack Greiner, objected. He said excluding that information would amount to closing the hearing.
Jill Meyer, an attorney representing several area television stations and newspapers, argued that the public has the right to know that the court's handling of the Fiesel children's custody will be done properly. "We know that it didn't work out for Marcus," she said.
His foster parents, Liz and David Carroll, are jailed on murder and other charges involving the 3-year-old boy's death.
Love means never caging your special-needs adopted children
Day 2 for jury in caged children case
Sheeran, Thomas. Cincinnati Post, Dec. 21, 2006, pg. A5.
DAY 2 FOR JURY IN CAGED CHILDREN CASE
Cincinnati Post, The (OH)December 21, 2006Author: Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press
Jurors reminded that "love isn't what you say, it's what you do" deliberated for a second day without a verdict Wednesday in the case of parents charged with forcing some of their 11 special needs children to sleep in wood and wire cages.
Jurors deliberated about two hours Tuesday, went home for the night and returned promptly about 9 a.m. Wednesday to consider the charges against Sharen and Michael Gravelle. They met Wednesday until just after 5 p.m., then told the judge they wanted to return today to continue.
The Gravelles each face eight misdemeanor counts of child abuse, eight felony counts of child endangering and eight misdemeanor counts of child endangering.
Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler, ending more than four hours of summations by himself and two defense attorneys, told jurors Tuesday that the cages robbed the children of the chance to run to a mother in fear during a nighttime storm.
"That's what kids do and that is what these kids couldn't do," Leffler said. "Love isn't what you say, it's what you do."
Defense attorneys Ken Myers and Richard Drucker, representing Sharen and Michael respectively, said the enclosed bunks were meant to protect unruly youngsters from their sometimes violent siblings.
"They did the best they could under the circumstances," Drucker said.The endangering charges against the Gravelles accuse the couple of putting some of their children at a substantial risk of harming their mental health.The Gravelles face one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count if convicted.
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.
The case began when a county social worker visited the home after a complaint and discovered the cages. In the trial, that social worker testified that the cages reminded her of slave quarters.
Sheeran, Thomas. Cincinnati Post, Dec. 21, 2006, pg. A5.
DAY 2 FOR JURY IN CAGED CHILDREN CASE
Cincinnati Post, The (OH)December 21, 2006Author: Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press
Jurors reminded that "love isn't what you say, it's what you do" deliberated for a second day without a verdict Wednesday in the case of parents charged with forcing some of their 11 special needs children to sleep in wood and wire cages.
Jurors deliberated about two hours Tuesday, went home for the night and returned promptly about 9 a.m. Wednesday to consider the charges against Sharen and Michael Gravelle. They met Wednesday until just after 5 p.m., then told the judge they wanted to return today to continue.
The Gravelles each face eight misdemeanor counts of child abuse, eight felony counts of child endangering and eight misdemeanor counts of child endangering.
Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler, ending more than four hours of summations by himself and two defense attorneys, told jurors Tuesday that the cages robbed the children of the chance to run to a mother in fear during a nighttime storm.
"That's what kids do and that is what these kids couldn't do," Leffler said. "Love isn't what you say, it's what you do."
Defense attorneys Ken Myers and Richard Drucker, representing Sharen and Michael respectively, said the enclosed bunks were meant to protect unruly youngsters from their sometimes violent siblings.
"They did the best they could under the circumstances," Drucker said.The endangering charges against the Gravelles accuse the couple of putting some of their children at a substantial risk of harming their mental health.The Gravelles face one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count if convicted.
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.
The case began when a county social worker visited the home after a complaint and discovered the cages. In the trial, that social worker testified that the cages reminded her of slave quarters.
Renewing Lifeway contract 'to provide stability'
Hamilton Co. renews contract with Lifeway
Perry, Kimball. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 21, 2006, pg. B2.
Hamilton County officials agreed Wednesday to a $2 million contract with the agency under fire for recruiting foster parents Liz and David Carroll Jr., now charged with murder in the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel.
Commissioners approved the $2,084,868 contract - for calendar year 2007 - with Lifeway for Youth, one of the largest private foster-care providers that contracts with local counties.
There is no need to worry, assures Rick Roberts, head of the Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services."This is a renewal" of a contract his agency has with Lifeway.
The agency now is providing foster care services for 113 foster children in Hamilton County care who are "mentally unstable and have behavioral issues," according to the resolution approving the contract.
"We're doing this for stability. Stability for these kids is key," Robert said.
Lifeway came under fire after it was learned that agency recruited the Carrolls to become foster parents for Marcus.
Officials have charged the Union Township couple with murder and other charges stemming from the child's August death. They are accused of wrapping Marcus in a blanket, placing him in a playpen inside a closet in their house and leaving him there - at least overnight - so they could attend a family reunion. When they returned, the child was dead.
David Carroll also is charged with burning the body and is suspected of throwing the burned remains in the Ohio River.
After that incident, Hamilton County ordered an investigation into the status of the 151 foster children it placed with Lifeway.
Days after the child's body was found, Hamilton County suspended placing foster children with Lifeway.
Perry, Kimball. Cincinnati Enquirer, Dec. 21, 2006, pg. B2.
Hamilton County officials agreed Wednesday to a $2 million contract with the agency under fire for recruiting foster parents Liz and David Carroll Jr., now charged with murder in the death of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel.
Commissioners approved the $2,084,868 contract - for calendar year 2007 - with Lifeway for Youth, one of the largest private foster-care providers that contracts with local counties.
There is no need to worry, assures Rick Roberts, head of the Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services."This is a renewal" of a contract his agency has with Lifeway.
The agency now is providing foster care services for 113 foster children in Hamilton County care who are "mentally unstable and have behavioral issues," according to the resolution approving the contract.
"We're doing this for stability. Stability for these kids is key," Robert said.
Lifeway came under fire after it was learned that agency recruited the Carrolls to become foster parents for Marcus.
Officials have charged the Union Township couple with murder and other charges stemming from the child's August death. They are accused of wrapping Marcus in a blanket, placing him in a playpen inside a closet in their house and leaving him there - at least overnight - so they could attend a family reunion. When they returned, the child was dead.
David Carroll also is charged with burning the body and is suspected of throwing the burned remains in the Ohio River.
After that incident, Hamilton County ordered an investigation into the status of the 151 foster children it placed with Lifeway.
Days after the child's body was found, Hamilton County suspended placing foster children with Lifeway.
Marcus fell off roof while living with his biological mother
BRIEFS: Judge drops county from suit over 3-year-old's death
Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 23 2006, News pg. D3.
HAMILTON - A judge has dismissed Butler County and its children's services agency from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the birth mother of a 3-year-old boy whose foster parents are accused of killing him.
Donna Trevino, the mother of Marcus Fiesel, and her attorney did not provide enough evidence to support their claim that the county and its Children Services Board were liable for his death, Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage ruled Thursday.
Trevino's suit, which seeks $5 million, also names Liz and David Carroll Jr., the Clermont County couple who have pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in Fiesel's death.
Authorities say the couple wrapped the child in a blanket and packing tape and left him in a closet while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky. When they returned two days later, the boy was dead, authorities said.
Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper filed the motion asking the judge to dismiss the county from Trevino's suit.
"The facts just didn't support (the lawsuit)," Piper said. "Even if we weren't dismissed, we were prepared to fight to the very end. For her to profit from this tragedy was totally unacceptable to everyone."
Fiesel and two other children were removed from Trevino's Middletown home in April after allegations of neglect. In January, he fell off a roof after climbing out of a second-floor window, police said.
The wrongful-death suit filed in September also names Lifeway for Youth Inc., the agency that placed the child with the Carrolls, and a woman who lived with the couple but has not been charged in the case.
-- From staff and wire reports
Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 23 2006, News pg. D3.
HAMILTON - A judge has dismissed Butler County and its children's services agency from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the birth mother of a 3-year-old boy whose foster parents are accused of killing him.
Donna Trevino, the mother of Marcus Fiesel, and her attorney did not provide enough evidence to support their claim that the county and its Children Services Board were liable for his death, Common Pleas Judge Michael Sage ruled Thursday.
Trevino's suit, which seeks $5 million, also names Liz and David Carroll Jr., the Clermont County couple who have pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in Fiesel's death.
Authorities say the couple wrapped the child in a blanket and packing tape and left him in a closet while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky. When they returned two days later, the boy was dead, authorities said.
Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper filed the motion asking the judge to dismiss the county from Trevino's suit.
"The facts just didn't support (the lawsuit)," Piper said. "Even if we weren't dismissed, we were prepared to fight to the very end. For her to profit from this tragedy was totally unacceptable to everyone."
Fiesel and two other children were removed from Trevino's Middletown home in April after allegations of neglect. In January, he fell off a roof after climbing out of a second-floor window, police said.
The wrongful-death suit filed in September also names Lifeway for Youth Inc., the agency that placed the child with the Carrolls, and a woman who lived with the couple but has not been charged in the case.
-- From staff and wire reports
Birth family information should also be shared, says foster parent
Disclosure could put foster parents at risk
Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 24, 2006, Editorial & Comment pg. F4.
It is very easy for The Dispatch to focus on finding out the identities of foster parents instead of helping our society to find answers for foster care ("The public's business," Dispatch editorial, Tuesday). I have served as a foster parent for six years and have foster children who have lived in foster care for five years. That's right: five years.
The laws are supposed to govern foster parents, agencies and the judicial authority, and yet they appear not always to be enforced. For example, in 1997, the Safe Families Act said that children cannot be in foster care for 15 of 22 months before permanency. I think that 61 months is more than 15 months.
Now onto revealing the personal information of foster parents: I welcome the opportunity to talk about the problems of foster care. However, I have known several foster parents and caseworkers who have had their lives threatened by birth families. In one incident, the birth father attempted to hire a hit man from jail. If we are going to open up Pandora's box, let's also reveal the information of the birth families.
If our community knew the kinds of situations that kids come out of, maybe we could look at long-term solutions. Additionally, I have children. If the birth families and every other person in town could know the location of my home and my personal information, my children would be at risk. That is not acceptable!
I value the trust that has been placed in me as a foster parent. I have had 16 children stay with me and have adopted several. But revealing all of my personal info is not the answer to the long-term problems of foster care. The newspaper's ignorance in believing that it will is irresponsible and just another attempt to pacify those on a witch hunt.
What happened to Marcus Fiesel is horrendous and yet, instead of letting his life stand for significant change to the system, we apparently are simply going to use it to create greater problems for the system. How sad.
-ANGELIA FOSTER, Gahanna
Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 24, 2006, Editorial & Comment pg. F4.
It is very easy for The Dispatch to focus on finding out the identities of foster parents instead of helping our society to find answers for foster care ("The public's business," Dispatch editorial, Tuesday). I have served as a foster parent for six years and have foster children who have lived in foster care for five years. That's right: five years.
The laws are supposed to govern foster parents, agencies and the judicial authority, and yet they appear not always to be enforced. For example, in 1997, the Safe Families Act said that children cannot be in foster care for 15 of 22 months before permanency. I think that 61 months is more than 15 months.
Now onto revealing the personal information of foster parents: I welcome the opportunity to talk about the problems of foster care. However, I have known several foster parents and caseworkers who have had their lives threatened by birth families. In one incident, the birth father attempted to hire a hit man from jail. If we are going to open up Pandora's box, let's also reveal the information of the birth families.
If our community knew the kinds of situations that kids come out of, maybe we could look at long-term solutions. Additionally, I have children. If the birth families and every other person in town could know the location of my home and my personal information, my children would be at risk. That is not acceptable!
I value the trust that has been placed in me as a foster parent. I have had 16 children stay with me and have adopted several. But revealing all of my personal info is not the answer to the long-term problems of foster care. The newspaper's ignorance in believing that it will is irresponsible and just another attempt to pacify those on a witch hunt.
What happened to Marcus Fiesel is horrendous and yet, instead of letting his life stand for significant change to the system, we apparently are simply going to use it to create greater problems for the system. How sad.
-ANGELIA FOSTER, Gahanna
Justice is served
Parents guilty of caging children
Gravelles could go to jail for endangering, abuse; some charges dropped
Sheeran, Thomas J. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 23, 2006, News pg. A1.
The couple accused of forcing their adopted children to sleep in cheerily painted wire and wood cages are guilty of felony child endangering, a jury decided yesterday.
Both Michael Gravelle, 57, and his wife, Sharen, 58, were convicted 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, Mrs. Gravelle stopped walking on a sidewalk and, tears welling in her eyes and her voice cracking, asked her attorney to "get them out of my face."
As the verdicts were read in Huron County Common Pleas Court, Mr. Gravelle rocked in his chair, stroking his white beard with his hand and staring at the jury. His wife looked down at the defense table and took notes.
The parents said 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, attorney for Mrs. 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, attorney for Mr. Gravelle, said the two still were trying to figure out the verdict and why the jury found the couple guilty on some charges 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 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 and the couple lost custody in March.
Margaret Kern, a court-appointed advocate for the children, was delighted with the verdict. "Finally. It was a long time coming, but justice has been served for these children," Kern said.
She said the youngsters are doing well in foster homes.
Debbie Nottke, a foster mother for one of the boys who had been in the Gravelles' care, said the verdicts show that caging children is intolerable.
"You can't do it. You just cannot do it," she said.
Jurors chose not to comment publicly and left.
The Gravelles could get 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 or up to six months each. Judge Earl McGimpsey set sentencing for Feb. 12. He allowed the Gravelles to remain free on bond.
The case prompted the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to increase its oversight of homes in which there are multiple special-needs children.
The department also established guidelines for agency workers to visit children before adoptions are approved and added staff to 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 the children's behavior improved because of the cages, which were painted bright blues and reds.
Prosecutors said the couple were cruel. Some of the children said the cages were urine-stained and lacked bedding, including pillows and mattresses.
One Gravelle child testified that 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. - LIVING IN A BATHROOM WAS HELPFUL??
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 that they took on so many needy children because no one else wanted them. Prosecutors have suggested that the couple wanted so many special-needs youngsters because of the adoption and foster-care subsidies that accompanied them.
Sharen and Michael Gravelle leave the Hinton County Courthouse after they were found guilty of felony child endangering.
Gravelles could go to jail for endangering, abuse; some charges dropped
Sheeran, Thomas J. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 23, 2006, News pg. A1.
The couple accused of forcing their adopted children to sleep in cheerily painted wire and wood cages are guilty of felony child endangering, a jury decided yesterday.
Both Michael Gravelle, 57, and his wife, Sharen, 58, were convicted 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, Mrs. Gravelle stopped walking on a sidewalk and, tears welling in her eyes and her voice cracking, asked her attorney to "get them out of my face."
As the verdicts were read in Huron County Common Pleas Court, Mr. Gravelle rocked in his chair, stroking his white beard with his hand and staring at the jury. His wife looked down at the defense table and took notes.
The parents said 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, attorney for Mrs. 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, attorney for Mr. Gravelle, said the two still were trying to figure out the verdict and why the jury found the couple guilty on some charges 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 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 and the couple lost custody in March.
Margaret Kern, a court-appointed advocate for the children, was delighted with the verdict. "Finally. It was a long time coming, but justice has been served for these children," Kern said.
She said the youngsters are doing well in foster homes.
Debbie Nottke, a foster mother for one of the boys who had been in the Gravelles' care, said the verdicts show that caging children is intolerable.
"You can't do it. You just cannot do it," she said.
Jurors chose not to comment publicly and left.
The Gravelles could get 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 or up to six months each. Judge Earl McGimpsey set sentencing for Feb. 12. He allowed the Gravelles to remain free on bond.
The case prompted the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to increase its oversight of homes in which there are multiple special-needs children.
The department also established guidelines for agency workers to visit children before adoptions are approved and added staff to 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 the children's behavior improved because of the cages, which were painted bright blues and reds.
Prosecutors said the couple were cruel. Some of the children said the cages were urine-stained and lacked bedding, including pillows and mattresses.
One Gravelle child testified that 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. - LIVING IN A BATHROOM WAS HELPFUL??
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 that they took on so many needy children because no one else wanted them. Prosecutors have suggested that the couple wanted so many special-needs youngsters because of the adoption and foster-care subsidies that accompanied them.
Sharen and Michael Gravelle leave the Hinton County Courthouse after they were found guilty of felony child endangering.
County social worker likened cages to slave quarters
BRIEFS: Deliberations on 'caged kids' continue today
Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 22, 2006, News pg. D5.
NORWALK, Ohio (AP) -- Jurors ended their third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the case of parents charged with forcing some of their 11 special-needs children to sleep in wood and wire cages.
The jurors worked overtime yesterday before going home in the early evening and were to resume this morning.
Sharen and Michael Gravelle each face eight felony counts of child endangering, eight misdemeanor counts of child endangering and eight misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
Jurors began deliberating Tuesday and got an early start yesterday.
The endangering charges against the Gravelles accuse the couple of putting some of their children at substantial risk of harm to their mental health.
The Gravelles could get one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count if convicted.
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, and the couple lost custody in March.
The case began when a county social worker visited the home after a complaint and likened the red and blue cages to kennels. In the trial, that social worker testified that the cages reminded her of slave quarters.
Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 22, 2006, News pg. D5.
NORWALK, Ohio (AP) -- Jurors ended their third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the case of parents charged with forcing some of their 11 special-needs children to sleep in wood and wire cages.
The jurors worked overtime yesterday before going home in the early evening and were to resume this morning.
Sharen and Michael Gravelle each face eight felony counts of child endangering, eight misdemeanor counts of child endangering and eight misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
Jurors began deliberating Tuesday and got an early start yesterday.
The endangering charges against the Gravelles accuse the couple of putting some of their children at substantial risk of harm to their mental health.
The Gravelles could get one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count if convicted.
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, and the couple lost custody in March.
The case began when a county social worker visited the home after a complaint and likened the red and blue cages to kennels. In the trial, that social worker testified that the cages reminded her of slave quarters.
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