Child confined to cage for weeks at a time

First child to testify says he spent weeks in 'cage'
Boy describes life with adoptive parents
Milicia, Joe. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 7, 2006, News pg. D6.

NORWALK, Ohio-- A boy who had been adopted by a couple on trial for caging some of their children testified yesterday that he did not like the cage he slept in because it was small and hot. He also admitted to being a violent child who threw things.

The boy, the first of several of the adopted children expected to testify in the trial of Michael and Sharen Gravelle, told the jury that he was sent to a cage for weeks at a time as punishment.

"Mine was really small. In the summertime it was really hot in there. We said we liked them because it made us safe. But we really didn't like them. We said it to make them (the Gravelles) happy," the boy testified.

The Gravelles are charged with 16 felony and eight misdemeanor counts of child endangering. If convicted, they face one to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000 for each felony count.

They deny abusing the 11 adopted, special-needs children in their care and have said that they had to keep some of the youngsters in enclosed beds to protect them. The children suffered from problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome and a disorder that involves compulsive eating of nonfood items.

The children were from 1 to 14 years old when authorities took them in September 2005 from the home in rural Wakeman. The youngsters were placed in foster care last fall, and the couple lost custody in March.

The court has prohibited reporters from using the children's names or ages.

Under questioning by defense lawyers, the boy calmly acknowledged that he was an angry child who would have fits.

"They would sit on me until I calmed down," he said of the Gravelles.

He also said he held one of his brothers out of a second-story window and urinated out of a window, onto a wall and a heating grate. But he said he felt safe and secure in the home and slept well once he got used to his enclosed bed.

Defense lawyer Ken Myers noted that, a year ago during a custody hearing, the same boy said he didn't think the enclosed beds abused him and others. Myers asked what the boy thinks now.

After a pause, the boy said, "I believe they do."

He added that he didn't think of the wood and wire enclosures as cages until he saw a story about it on the television news.