KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In a sharp critique read by a third party, a child abuse survivor of Michael and Shirley Gray asked the Department of Children's Services in Tennessee to put children first.
Michael and Shirley Gray were sentenced to life in prison for abusing the children they adopted. The abuse was so severe, that two of the children died.
Tennessee subsidized the adoption of the five children. Roane County District Attorney General Russell Johnson said the Grays got about $2,900 a month from the state subsidies, even when two of the children were dead.
In the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, one of the victims didn't attend but sent a statement for Leigh Anne Goldstine to read. Goldstine is a counselor who works with two of the children the Grays abused.
"DCS, you failed us," the statement said. "I think DCS should have a private conversation or meeting with the children so they can hear the children's side of the story about the foster home they are living in."
Goldstine said the child's complaints about mistreatment to DCS went ignored.
"Several of those kids slept upright against each other," Goldstine said. "They didn't have beds. They didn't have blankets."
The Grays adopted five children out of the foster system. At that point, DCS stopped inspecting, the Commissioner told WBIR at the time.
"Without an allegation of abuse or neglect, the state has no legal authority to monitor the children any further," former DCS Commissioner Jennifer Nichols said to 10News in 2020.
State Sen. Ken Yager (R - Kingston), after hearing of this story, worked to change state law. It now requires any parent who gets state subsidies for adopting children to submit medical records or school enrollment records, every year. Yager said his goal was to make sure something like this never happens again in Tennessee.
"It was just so shocking and caused me to look into the law," Yager said in 2021.
Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen said that most of the children never attended school, were forced to wear the same clothes, never bathed and were made to eat only bread and water.