Settlement reached in caged-kids case
Associated Press
NORWALK, Ohio – Eleven adopted and foster children who were forced to sleep in cages by a northern Ohio couple have reached a $1.2 million settlement with the county where they once lived.
Lawyers for the children announced the settlement Wednesday. They said Huron County officials should have discovered what was happening sooner and removed the children more quickly.
The children who suffered from problems such as fetal alcohol syndrome ranged in age from 1 to 14 when authorities removed them from their home in 2005.
Their adoptive parents, Michael and Sharen Gravelle, are serving two-year prison terms for abusing some of the children.
Attorney Jack Landskroner said the county missed several red flags that could have alerted them to the problems at the home.
The county has denied blame.