Three children testify that Gravelles pushed girl's head down toilet

Girl's testimony brings couple, jurors to tears
'Caged' kids express range of emotions
Milicia, Joe. Columbus Dispatch, Dec. 8, 2006, News pg. 7D.

NORWALK, Ohio-- A couple of jurors shed tears and at times smiled adoringly during the testimony of children whose adoptive parents are accused of making some of them sleep in cages.

Six of the 11 children testified in the trial, including four yesterday. They expressed anger with Michael and Sharen Gravelle and sadness for having been removed from their custody.

One girl exchanged a smile with her mother, seated at the defense table, while attorneys argued matters of law with the judge.

Two boys barely looked at their parents, except to identify them for the prosecutor.

The Gravelles are charged with 16 counts of felony child endangering and eight misdemeanor child-endangering charges. If convicted, they could get 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 home in rural Wakeman, about 60 miles west of Cleveland.

The youngsters were placed in foster care last fall, and the couple lost custody in March.
The Gravelles and a couple of jurors cried when an adopted daughter testified that she missed her parents and still loved them.

"Would you like to give (your mom and dad) a hug?" defense attorney Ken Myers asked.

"Yes."

Myers sought permission from Huron County Common Pleas Judge Earl R. McGimpsey. Prosecutor Russell Leffler objected, and the judge did not allow them to hug.

Leffler asked one boy where he slept while living with the Gravelles.

"In a cage," he said.

On cross-examination, the boy was asked who told him it was a cage. He said he didn't know.

"I didn't know I was in a cage," he said.

The Gravelles say they built enclosures, which the children called boxes, to protect the children from themselves and one another. They deny abusing them.

Asked by Myers whether he roamed the house at night with his brothers, the boy said he didn't and blamed another brother, causing several jurors to grin knowingly.

Several of the children described a wood paddle that the children were struck with when they misbehaved.

Another boy, who sat with his hands behind his back, said he was sent to his cage as punishment and other times for no reason. He said his father would hit him with a paddle if he got out.

He was the third child to testify that a girl who had Down syndrome had her head forced in the toilet by the Gravelles.