Adopted Kids Slept In Cages
However, 11 Children Said To Be Polite And Well-Behaved
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Play CBS Video Video Children Free From Cages CS News RAW: Huron County, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services official Erich Dumbeck held a press conference about 11 disabled children removed from adoptive parents.
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Video 11 Children Found In Cages Police found 11 children, with various disabilities, ranging in ages from 1 to 14 locked in small cages inside their Ohio home. The couple denied any wrongdoing.
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Video Ohio Children Slept In Cages An Ohio couple forced their 11 adopted children to sleep in cages, according to authorities. The children range in age from 1-14 and all suffer from disabilities, Sharyn Alfonsi reports.
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Boots, shoes, and clothing at the patio door of the home where authorities discovered that children were being kept in cages in Clarksfield Township, Ohio. (AP)
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The Clarksfield Township, Ohio, house where Huron County Sheriff deputies say they found 11 children — with various disabilities including autism — locked in cages equipped with alarms. (AP)
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Interactive Children In Danger Warning signs, state-by-state child services information and a history of child welfare reforms.
Their adoptive parents, Michael Gravelle, 56, and Sharen Gravelle, 57, denied in a custody hearing Monday that they abused or neglected the children, who are ages 1-14 and have conditions that included autism and fetal alcohol syndrome.
No charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon, and messages left with the couple's lawyer were not immediately returned.
According to court papers, investigators actually saw two children inside the wooden and wire cages during a visit, CBS News Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reports.
Nine cages in all, each about 3 foot by 3 foot. Some had locks, others were blocked by furniture. Investigators say the entire room spelled of urine, Alfonsi adds. They were locked up, their parents say, for their own good.
The Gravelles have said a psychiatrist recommended they make the children sleep in the cages, Huron County Prosecutor Russell Leffler told the Norwalk Reflector. The parents said the children, including some who had mental disorders, needed to be protected from each other, according to a search warrant on file at Norwalk Municipal Court.
Leffler refused to speak with an Associated Press reporter Tuesday at his office.
Neighbors said they often saw or heard the children playing, and the family yard was littered with toys: plastic cars, tricycles, slides and an overturned skateboard near a wooden ramp. Seven bicycles were piled in a storage shed.
"Those kids were dressed better than some of the kids who live in Cleveland. They behaved like any other kids when they were outside playing," said Jim Power, who lives across the street.
At night, authorities say, eight of the children were confined in 3-foot-tall wooden cages stacked in bedrooms on the second floor. The cages were painted in bright, primary colors, with some rigged with alarms that would send a signal to the downstairs when a cage door was opened. One cage had a dresser in front of it, county sheriff's Lt. Randy Sommers said Tuesday.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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