According to allegations made by law authorities in the Sunshine State, a family consisting of four individuals is currently incarcerated for allegedly subjecting their adopted and foster children to a wide variety of forms of abuse.
Several counts of aggravated child abuse have been brought against Brian Griffeth, who is 47 years old, Jill Griffeth, who is 41 years old, and their biological children, Dallin Griffeth, who is 21 years old, and Liberty Griffeth, who is 19 years old, according to the court records of Columbia County.
After one of the children was allegedly captured with a “Taser” at a Mormon church camp in Branford, which is a small town located approximately 45 miles northwest of Gainesville, the authorities started their investigation.
According to an arrest warrant, the child’s parents claimed insisted that the Taser “was fake and a toy.” However, law enforcement officials determined that the item was in fact a weapon.
An employee of the church who was contacted for a follow-up visit shared some distressing claims regarding the family and the nine children who were living in their home.
Child welfare officials were informed by the employee of the church that the family had recently migrated from Arizona to Florida, bringing with them a number of foster children under their care.
“The employee explained that the Griffeth family primarily fosters or adopts African American children and expressed concerns that these foster/adoptive children are being treated unfairly,” according to the arrest warrant’s description. According to the employee, the children are not receiving an appropriate education because none of the youngsters who are in foster care or who have been adopted are familiar with their previous names or other fundamental personal information. It was stated by child welfare authorities that [the employee of the church] is of the opinion that these foster and adoptive youngsters behave more like employees than they do like family members.
There was a rise in the number of allegations as the investigation progressed.
After then, agents from the child welfare department went to the Griffeth residence, which is located on Boundary Way in an unincorporated area of Columbia County. According to the warrant, Jill Griffeth first refused to let investigators enter the residence or meet with the children. She also refused to allow them to speak with the children.
According to the authorities, the mother eventually gave in and consented to the police conducting interviews with her children while she and her husband supervised the process.
On the other hand, during these first interviews, Jill Griffeth “had to correct them or look up the information on her phone,” as stated in the court document. This was because some of the youngsters were not familiar with their birthdates. According to the allegations, the defendant then terminated the interviews and “expressed a desire to consult with her attorney before further questioning.”
A youngster “who was expected to be present” was “unaccounted for,” as stated in the warrant, which was another element that stuck out to the initial detectives who were carrying out the investigation. When the parents were questioned about this apparent contradiction, Jill Griffeth allegedly stated that the girl had never traveled to Florida; however, one of her daughters rebutted her statement. As it turned out, the child had been living with the family through the year 2024 until she phoned her mother, who resides in Arizona, and “begging her to come get her,” according to the allegations made in the warrant.
An Arizona-based lady reported charges that at least one adult in the Griffeth family had committed sexual assault against at least one kid. These allegations were relayed in a section of the court document that had been severely redacted or removed entirely.
According to another section of the document, Brian Griffeth is accused of using a cane to beat the children who are in foster care or who have been adopted, “but is careful not to leave a mark.”
One witness claims that the Griffeths have a different approach to the meals that they provide for their adopted and foster children than they do for their own children.
“She reported that if there wasn’t enough food, the foster and adopted children in the home would not get any food,” the warrant states in its entirety.
A further statement in the warrant states that the Griffeths have a total of seven children: five biological children, three adopted children, and one foster child.
Early in the month of July, the children were taken away from their home.
According to the warrant, the initial conversations with the children did not result in any complaints being made against them. One of the boys, who was 14 years old at the time, stated that he is occasionally “caged in his bunk bed at home as punishment.” This was said to have occurred during a therapy session.
According to the warrant, the boy stated in a follow-up interview with a detective from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office that his parents would use a piece of plywood to cover up the only entrance to the bottom tier of his three-tiered bunk bed, even at night. This, according to the boy, would frequently force him to wait until the following morning if he needed to use the restroom.
After that, the youngster said that he was subjected to a more severe punishment.
Regarding the warrant, in great detail:
The child also stated that his mother would periodically instruct him to scoot out of his bed and lie on the floor. During these times, she would push the plywood sheet over his chest and back as a kind of punishment, which would result in splinters that would cause him to get injuries. Taking off his shirt, the young man pointed out a number of scars that were caused by this punishment. The young kid claimed that his mother had unscrewed the plywood at one point, which led him to assume that he would be liberated from his confinement. This occurred when he was pounding on the plywood to request his release. On the other hand, she then told him to lie back down and forced the plywood onto his chest. After that, she had him turn over so that she could press it onto his back, and finally, she secured him back into his bed.
The boy mentioned that he had been punished by being sprayed with vinegar in the face while he was discussing the consequences of his actions.
A child who was nine years old and another child who was seven years old gave investigators essentially the same tale. Both of these children were sleeping in the three-tiered bunk bed.
According to the youngsters who were listed in the warrant, the boy, who is 14 years old, is left confined to his bed for the most of the day and night. According to the allegations, the 14-year-old is only allowed to leave the facility for lunch, dinner, “whenever he wants to play,” and occasionally at the request of his brothers. According to the allegations, the adults in the residence use a green drill to secure the plywood and keep the 14-year-old child confined since he has “a tendency to steal.”
In addition, one of the boys stated that his brother, who is purportedly being held captive, “likes it in his bed and sleeps a lot.”
After some time had passed, a girl of 14 years old and another girl of 15 years old confirmed the cage-like aspect of the bed and the manner in which plywood is attached with the green drill. On the other hand, when the younger daughter was asked to defend the confinement, she stated that her brother was being punished because “he is too rough with the dogs.”
The fourteen-year-old female student additionally “reported being uncertain of her current grade level and indicated that she has not attended school for six or seven years” along with having “also mentioned that she is illiterate.” After that, she went on to inform the investigators that her mother also used vinegar as a kind of punishment against her. She described an event in which she was “sprayed before bed by her mother and how the vinegar burned her eyes, making her cry herself to sleep.”
The girl, who is 15 years old, is said to have proven yet another distinction between the biological children and the adopted and foster children, which is the availability of mobile phones during the adoption process. The older girl stated that the Griffeths provided their biological children with mobile phones, but they did not provide these devices to their adopted and foster children.
“The 15-year-old girl explained that she’s asked for a phone but her mother said she has to learn to read before she can get a phone,” the arrest warrant continues to read.
Every single one of the four defendants is currently being held without bond at the Columbia County Jail.
