ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080065
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-13 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
Three of the four children named as victims in a 1,200-count abuse indictment have told the Chicago Tribune that they made up the horrific stories.
Conflicts are emerging in accounts of what authorities described as four years of sexual assault, beatings, drug injections and meals of fried rats and boiled roaches. Gerald Hill - father of two of the children and stepfather to the others - is in the Cook County Jail facing 1,200 charges. Their mother, Barbara Hill, is jailed facing four charges.
The Cook County state attorney's office said in a statement late Wednesday that the children are ``in the hands of child care specialists'' and ``law enforcement personnel have not attempted to discuss'' the story with them. ``In due course, a decision will be made based on the evidence and welfare of the children.''
Barbara Hill's father, Harvey Lawrence, claimed the accusations arose from a family feud over custody of the children. Barbara Hill's oldest son, Gregory Lawrence, and his fiancee have been caring for the children - a 5-year-old boy and his sisters ages 10, 11 and 12 - since they were removed from their mother in January 1994.
The Tribune reported that the girls said their brother's fiancee prodded them into weaving their tale - and they repeated it to therapists, police and prosecutors so they wouldn't get into trouble.
``She kept asking and asking, and finally you said yes so it would be all over,'' the Tribune quoted the 11-year-old as saying.
A state report said the children were referred to therapists because of their disturbing behavior in their older brother's home. One official said that included smearing feces on a wall, cutting up clothes and making sexual advances to an infant.
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