LilMtnCbn
02-04-2004, 07:29 AM
http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=1629441&nav=9TaiKbV2
Mother surrenders on neglect charges
Bloomington, Feb. 3 - The mother of more than a dozen children in Bloomington,
several adopted, turned herself in to police Tuesday. Fifty-three-year-old
Diana Groves was released on $50,000 bond. She was booked on three charges of
neglect and one of being a habitual criminal because she has a history of more
than two felonies, including theft and fraud.
As the Eyewitness News Investigators first reported Monday night, Groves - who
promotes herself as a rescuer of unwanted children - is now accused of cruel
and unusual punishment on some of them.
Her attorney told Eyewitness News, "The legal process has started and we'll see
what happens next."
Groves is known in Bloomington for taking in and adopting unwanted children.
Child Protective Services removed a total of 13 children from her home in
November after a babysitter reported Groves used cruel and unusual punishment
on a developmentally disabled little boy in her home.
"Restrained him by duct taping is arms to his body and his feet together and
placed him in a bathtub." Detective Brad Swain says interviews with other
children revealed at least two others were also restrained, "Duct taping their
hands and restraining to walls in the residence."
He says children also report being whipped with a tennis racket and paddle and
that an eight-year old girl was put in a clothes drier and spun around. "The
child who was in the drier states she was placed in there for misbehaving and
(the) drier was activated for several minutes while she was inside."
Many of the children in Groves' home were special needs children from other
states, even foreign countries like Russia and Ethiopia. Some came from
disrupted adoptions, where the family that originally adopted them decided it
wasn't working out.
The owner of The Adoption Support Center in Indianapolis, Julie Craft, says
Groves contacted her agency several times trying to adopt a child, but she
chose not to work with her and finds it troubling that other agencies did.
"That's the stuff that I mean. That's why we're here, not to have those things
happen. They need special care, not to be put in someplace unsafe."
Just how many children Groves adopted and whether those adoptions were legal is
still under investigation. Detectives are also looking at where she got her
money to take care of so many kids, because she had no known income.
All 13 children are now in foster care in Monroe County, and the detective says
they are doing well.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
Mother surrenders on neglect charges
Bloomington, Feb. 3 - The mother of more than a dozen children in Bloomington,
several adopted, turned herself in to police Tuesday. Fifty-three-year-old
Diana Groves was released on $50,000 bond. She was booked on three charges of
neglect and one of being a habitual criminal because she has a history of more
than two felonies, including theft and fraud.
As the Eyewitness News Investigators first reported Monday night, Groves - who
promotes herself as a rescuer of unwanted children - is now accused of cruel
and unusual punishment on some of them.
Her attorney told Eyewitness News, "The legal process has started and we'll see
what happens next."
Groves is known in Bloomington for taking in and adopting unwanted children.
Child Protective Services removed a total of 13 children from her home in
November after a babysitter reported Groves used cruel and unusual punishment
on a developmentally disabled little boy in her home.
"Restrained him by duct taping is arms to his body and his feet together and
placed him in a bathtub." Detective Brad Swain says interviews with other
children revealed at least two others were also restrained, "Duct taping their
hands and restraining to walls in the residence."
He says children also report being whipped with a tennis racket and paddle and
that an eight-year old girl was put in a clothes drier and spun around. "The
child who was in the drier states she was placed in there for misbehaving and
(the) drier was activated for several minutes while she was inside."
Many of the children in Groves' home were special needs children from other
states, even foreign countries like Russia and Ethiopia. Some came from
disrupted adoptions, where the family that originally adopted them decided it
wasn't working out.
The owner of The Adoption Support Center in Indianapolis, Julie Craft, says
Groves contacted her agency several times trying to adopt a child, but she
chose not to work with her and finds it troubling that other agencies did.
"That's the stuff that I mean. That's why we're here, not to have those things
happen. They need special care, not to be put in someplace unsafe."
Just how many children Groves adopted and whether those adoptions were legal is
still under investigation. Detectives are also looking at where she got her
money to take care of so many kids, because she had no known income.
All 13 children are now in foster care in Monroe County, and the detective says
they are doing well.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
