Huron County will pay $1.2 million to the 11 children kept in “cages’ by a couple convicted of abusing them.
Lawyers for the children and Huron County’s insurance cooperative reached the settlement last year, but various courts and officials did not approve it until now, said lawyers for both the county and the children.
Michael and Sharen Gravelle of Clarksfield Township were convicted of child abuse and child endangering in 2006 for keeping some of their 11 adopted and foster special-needs children in beds enclosed with chicken wire.
The Gravelles said they did so to prevent the children from hurting themselves and others, but they were each sentenced to two years in prison. They began serving those sentences in April 2009, after losing an appeal.
Paul Grieco, a lawyer for the children, said several counties placed children in the Gravelle home. Though Huron did not send any children there and removed the children in late-2005, Grieco said the county’s Department of Children’s Services should have taken action against the Gravelles sooner.
“Huron County was partly responsible for what happened to them,” he said.
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Article courtesy cleveland.com
