Justice for Henry – Part 8

PLEASE READ THESE BLOG POSTS FIRST:

• It’s Time to Go Fully Public With What Happened to My Son, Henry Granju
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 1
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 2
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 3
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 4
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 5
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 6
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 7

If you are on Twitter (you can follow me at @kgranju),  please share a link to this blog post using the hashtag, #justiceforhenry

 

The first few days that Henry was in the hospital were terrifying. We weren’t sure whether he would ever wake up, or whether he would remain comatose and die.  We never left him alone; someone from our family was with him around the clock. On April 30, doctors decided to try removing the ventilator to see what would happen. Henry struggled a little at first, but soon proved that he could breathe on his own. This was a great sign.

His  injured heart and lungs continued to cause problems, but with the great care he was getting, his healing was coming along. On May 1, four days after he was first brought into the ER, my prayers were answered, and Henry woke up. This day will forever be one I remember as the best of my life.

Henry was weak and disoriented, but he was awake, and his joy at seeing his family all around was just incredible. He smiled constantly, and recognized everyone. His long term memory was terrible, and he couldn’t so much as sit up in the bed by himself, but he was awake, alive and making progress. His ears continued to bleed, but the bruises on his face were fading. He was moved from the ICU to an acute care room, which was really promising.

Given the fact that Henry had been assaulted, and that he had overdosed, the hospital recommended that we make Henry an “unlisted” patient, so that no one could call and get information about where he was, or even whether he was actually a patient there.

I began gently trying to get information from Henry about what had happened to him. He remembered being beaten up, and told me that he’d been hit with “a tire iron.”  He didn’t seem able to remember much about going home with R and Y, or the overdose. I didn’t press him too hard, and I recognized that with his memory and speech problems, his information might be faulty. Still, I wanted to make sure that Detective H knew what Henry was saying.

During this first ten days that Henry was healing at UT Medical Center, I stayed in contact with Detective H. as much as possible. I called him every day, and according to my phone records, he left me three phone messages during this period. In each of them (I have them saved), he asked about Henry’s current condition and requested that I return the call. I always returned his calls promptly. When we spoke, I always asked him if he was sure he didn’t want Henry’s cell phone. He declined each time, saying that he had all the info he needed. I told him that Henry was telling me that he’d been hit with a tire iron, and he told me that this wasn’t possible because he’d already spoken to all three suspects in the April 25th assault, and while all three of them totally admitted robbing and beating Henry that evening, they all insisted that no weapon had been used. He also explained that since all 3 suspects gave a slightly different version of the story, and there were no witnesses, it would not be possible to prosecute or even arrest anyone. I tried and tried to explain to him that Henry’s text messages in the hours immediately following the assault – messages between Henry and one of the men who had now ADMITTED to Detective H that he’d been part of the robbery and assault – clearly revealed what had actually happened. But Detective H. said text messages weren’t real evidence, and that he really didn’t need to see the phone – which we continued to hold onto – or the texts.

None of this made sense, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Even as he told me that no one could be prosecuted for the assault, he also told me that KCSO intended to continue the investigation. I should have pressed harder at the time, but I completely trusted KCSO and the DA’s office to do the right thing, even if I didn’t quite understand what this detective was telling me. I had complete confidence in these agencies. Also, at that time I was primarily focused on caring for my still seriously injured and now brain damaged teenager. Plus, I was seven months pregnant and had a full time job, along with three other kids at home.

During this first ten days, I did not ask Detective H more than one or two times whether he needed to interview Henry, but I did ask him. He told me that he would be interviewing Henry very soon. He continued to say that he didn’t need to meet in person with our family as part of his investigation.

After about 10 days, Henry was improving enough that he was transferred to another Knoxville hospital which offered a specialized neurological rehab unit. Henry’s brain swelling was noted in his records to be “within normal limits” at this point, and his physical injuries were mostly healed except for the fact that both ears continued to bleed. Our family was beginning to shift our focus from whether Henry would survive to facing the reality that Henry had suffered significant brain damage. He could not walk, bathe, dress himself, read, play guitar, tell time, or feed himself without assistance. He could barely move his legs in the bed. He was verbal, but he was often disoriented. He cried a lot, as he began to realize the enormity of his brain damage. This absolutely tore my heart out. I am weeping typing this, remembering Henry’s dawning realization that he had been left severely disabled – mentally and physically – by the beating and overdose. Henry was a very shy and private person. Plus, he was a teenage boy. I could see the pain his eyes as he was forced to allow nurses (wonderful nurses, by the way) who were strangers to him to tend to his most intimate hygeine and personal care needs. As for me, I found myself performing tasks for my son that I hadn’t done for him since he was a baby.

Thirty eight days elapsed between the day Henry was brought unconscious and bleeding into the ER and the day he died. His ability to communicate peaked the around days 10-13, after which it deteriorated dramatically until he became mostly unable to speak. But it was during those “peak” days that Henry and I had a very significant conversation.

What I am about to discuss is very sensitive, and very painful for me to discuss. I have agonized over whether to make it public, but I have decided that it’s too important to keep to myself. In discussing it, I will be as forthcoming as I can while still retaining my son’s dignity and privacy to the extent that I can. So when you read what I have to say, you can assume that there are specific details I’ve left out, but which I communicated very explicitly to KCSO and the Knox County DA’s Office.

Sometime between May 7-9th, after Henry had just been transferred to the neuro rehab unit, I took him outside in his wheelchair one afternoon. This was during the week-long period when Henry could actually sit up on his own in a chair. I remember the day very, very clearly. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, and I parked his wheelchair on the grass in front of the hospital, and parked my hugely pregnant self on the grass at Henry’s feet. He was clearly enjoying the sunshine and the nice breeze.

Ever since Henry had been found near death inside the residence of two people I’d never heard of before – Y and R – I had been troubled by who these people were, and how Henry knew them. The texts on Henry’s phone revealed some kind of relationship between Henry and these two adults, and the relationship seemed to be one of dependency on Henry’s part. He seemed grateful to them for something, and was always very solicitous when he texted them. For their part, their communications seemed to be attempting to control and manipulate my son. Something about this whole thing seemed very weird, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I began gently asking Henry questions about the nature of his relationship with these people. How did he know them? Why was he in their house? Who were they, and what were these texts on his phone about? Henry began to cry, and in his halting speech, he shared with me that R and Y were involved in prostitution-for-drugs, mainly involving men and teenagers. He was able to give me some very specific details, and he was very, very upset by the discussion. He expressed a lot of concern for how these people’s activities might be hurting other kids.

I thought I might faint as my child told me this through his tears, but I held it together and reassured him that everything would be okay. After I got him settled back in his hospital room for a nap, I immediately called Henry’s father and explained what had just transpired. Then I called Detective H and left him an urgent message to call me back. He did call me back that afternoon, and I told him every single detail of what Henry had so painfully shared with me.

Detective H was totally and completely dismissive of what I was telling him. He informed me that he had interviewed R and Y, and that they were simply “good samaritans” (direct quote from him) who had wanted to help my son. He insisted that they had only met him for the first time on the night they took him home to their house trailer (FYI – since writing earlier posts, I have confirmed that it is indeed a house trailer). He told me that they had brought Henry home, and put him to bed because he seemed kind of out of it. The next morning, they had woken up and realized that Henry was unconscious and vomiting, so they called Y’s brother – who is apparently a nurse – and then immediately called 911. He told me that the fact that they called 911 for Henry was evidence that these were good, upstanding people who only wanted to help my troubled son. He acted as if I should be grateful to these people instead of critical. I tried to explain to him that Henry’s text messages made it abundantly clear that Y and R had NOT just met Henry on the evening of April 26th, and that there was some kind of weird and ongoing relationship between these two adults and my teenager. He told me that he was totally convinced of Y and R’s veracity. Further, he told me that while he had no intention of looking into the possibility of Y and R being involved in prostitution, or in preying on teenagers with drug problems, I was welcome to call KCSO’s Narcotics Unit and discuss this with them, as this sort of thing fell in their wheelhouse, not his.

At this point, I decided that I needed to try a different avenue to try to get a better investigation into what had happened to Henry. I called the Sheriff and left a message with his secretary, which he did not return. I then decided that I should put everything I knew so far into writing, and give it to the Knox County Attorney General. A good friend of mine with a longstanding personal and professional relationship with the AG offered to meet with him to discuss Henry’s case, and to hand deliver my written narrative. I was very grateful.

My friend met with Knox County AG Randy Nichols on May 11th or 12th – my notes don’t make that completely clear. But I know it was in that timeframe. This is the written narrative that I gave my friend, and which he personally handed over to Mr. Nichols. This was only two weeks after Henry was first admitted to the ER. I was already concerned enough about how KCSO was handling the case to reach out to the DA’s office.

(NOTE: I have redacted names and certain very specific information of a highly sensitive nature. These edits do not impact the tone, meaning, facts or intent of this document, which was HAND DELIVERED to the Knox County District Attorney. He assured the person who met with him to deliver this document that he would make certain that a full investigation would take place.)

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05.11.10

Henry Louis Granju

DOB: 10.07.91

• Henry is 18 years old. He turned 18 on October 7, 2009. He has suffered from a serious drug addiction for the past 3 years. His father, Chris Granju (Knox County Stormwater Director) and I have worked as hard as we can to get our son help since this began.

• Henry attended the Episcopal School of Knoxville from grades 1-8, and he was a good, well-behaved student until late middle school. His drug use began in 8^th grade and escalated quickly at about the time he entered 9^th grade at Knoxville Catholic High School. He also attended West High School before we sent him to treatment out of state.

• Henry has no juvenile arrest record.

• Between March 2009 and October 2009, Henry was enrolled in two highly regarded,  back-to-back outpatient drug and alcohol treatment programs (with high school classes included)  in North Carolina and Montana. He returned to Knoxville from <School name redacted>  in mid-October, one week after his 18^th birthday in 2009. At that time, he appeared to have resolve to quite abusing drugs.

• Within 3 weeks of returning home, however, Henry was abusing drugs again, and we became aware for the first time that he was involved in selling drugs to pay for his habit.  Over the next 6 months, we became aware that his drug habit was escalating quickly, moving from marijuana to hallucinogens to pain pills and other pills like xanax and valium. He began injecting and smoking narcotics for the first time sometime in late winter or early spring of 2010.

• His father and I worked hard every day during those months following inpatient treatment to convince him to accept the help we were offering . We tried to get him to return to treatment. He repeatedly declined, although he did not completely withdraw from us. We spoke with him on a nearly daily basis. He accomplished very little productive during this period, although he did manage to complete his GED in November of 2009.

• In April of 2010, Henry was arrested while sitting in a parked car in a Knoxville subdivision. He was with another teenager, <Name redacted>  Henry was arrested for public intoxication and possession of a “legend drug.” He spent three days in jail. We did not bail him out. He now has community service responsibilities that he is required to complete before July.

• On April 27, I was at my office and at about noon, I received a phone call on my cell phone from a number I didn’t recognize. A woman identifying herself as “Y” told me that my son Henry had been taken to the hospital after an overdose and that “it didn’t look good.”

• I rushed to the hospital, where I met Henry’s father. We were told that our son had overdosed and aspirated, causing a loss of oxygen to the brain. The ER personnel working with him also told us it appeared that he had been beaten badly.

• Henry spent the next 9 days at UT Medical Center, five of those days in intensive care. For three days he was on life support (a ventilator).

• He has now been moved to the neurological and physical rehab unit at St. Mary’s Hospital where he will spend the next several weeks. After that, we are looking at months, if not years, of continued work to try to help our son recover physically and cognitively. He may next go to Johns Hopkins or the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for specialized therapy to help his severe brain injury.

• His medical problems include:
  • Hypoxic brain injury due to lack of oxygen to the brain from the overdose and aspiration. This caused terrible brain swelling and visible damage to the brain via brain scan/MRI. This may or may not leave Henry with permanent cognitive disability. Currently, our 18 year old son is in a wheelchair, is totally incontinent and has significant mental incapacity with processing and higher level executive functioning.. We have been told that the level of his recovery and remaining disability will not be clear for many months
  • He also suffered a heart attack, which his doctor believes was due to being kicked or struck really hard in the chest.
  • His jaw was fractured.
  • His eardrums were badly contused from being struck and remain bloody almost two weeks after the assault that he suffered.
  • 
    
• We reported the assault and overdose to the Knox County Sheriff’s Department the day it happened. We have been discussing the case with Detective H. We gave him the names of some of Henry’s friends whom we believe know more about the case and what happened. We also have given him the name and number of “Y,” the woman who called me to tell me he had overdosed. Detective H has apparently done some investigation but not much.
• It is apparently Detective H’s belief that Henry was beat up early in the day on April 26^th as part of a drug deal gone bad somewhere in a south Knoxville park. We gave Detective H <name redacted> as one of the potential assault suspects (we got the name from Henry’s friends). Det. H has confirmed to us that he spoke with <name redacted>  and two other suspects who report that they were present when Henry was beat up sometime in the day on the day of the 26^h. Detective H ells us that since each of the three suspects tells a slightly different tale about who actually struck Henry in the head and chest, it is not possible to make any arrests. He says he will speak to Henry about the assault soon – when Henry feels up to it. In the meantime, however, no arrests have been made, although Henry was badly assaulted.
• 
  
• Detective H has stated to us that he does not believe “Y” had anything to do with Henry’s injuries or overdose and that she is simply a “good Samaritan” who was trying to help Henry get off drugs. He says the fact that she called 911 around noon on April 27th when Henry was passed out on her couch is evidence of her good intentions.
• Something about this whole Y story seemed odd to our family, especially since she has been texting my sister up to 20 times per day to insist that she had nothing to do with what happened to Henry or how he became injured. In some of her texts, she has referred to an  <name redacted> who died on the same day Henry was taken to the hospital. She has also given first names of several people whom she blames for Henry’s overdose and beating.  We have generally refrained from responding to any of these texts.
• Since Henry began talking again, we have been very gently trying to encourage him to tell us who this Y person is and how he ended up overdosed in her house on the morning of the 27^th. She was apparently the person who called 911, but not until he had been passed out there for some time, and not until she had called a teenage girl named S (who came to the hospital the day Henry was admitted) intervened. On the day Henry was admitted to the ER, S  told us that she had to threaten Y before Y would call for help for Henry.
• 
  
• Very, very slowly, because he is very ashamed and his brain injury makes communication difficult, the story of this person Y’s involvement with our son has emerged. Henry says that Y and her fiancé R (I’m not sure if I have the spelling right) are pimps. H says that Y seems to be the mastermind behind the whole thing. He says most of the activity is in south Knoxville.
• Henry is ashamed, embarrassed and is still recovering physically, emotionally and mentally. However, he is willing to talk to the police about what he knows about Y’s activities. When he is interviewed by the police, I believe a sexual assault victim’s advocate should be present. I would also like to be present, because this is so difficult for him to discuss.
• I have all the texts that this Y person has sent us since Henry was admitted to the hospital, ready to turn over to the police. Also, since Henry says she called him on his cell phone, those phone records would probably be helpful in corroborating our son’s story.
• On May 10, I called Detective H with the Knox County Sheriff’s Department to discuss what we had found out from Henry regarding the prostitution-for-drugs ring, and the role of “Y”  in giving Henry the drugs that led to his overdose. Detective H seemed disinterested, and repeatedly told me that unless Henry could specifically identify and name younger teenagers working for Y, there would be nothing law enforcement could do.  During the discussion, he referred to Henry as a “prostitution suspect,” and he told me that before he could even investigate the situation, he would have to meet with someone in the DA’s office and get the greenlight. He said he was unsure when he could get such a meeting with the DA’s office. He also told me – because I made the request -  that he was not sure whether a sexual assault advocate could be present if he decided to interview Henry.
• I believe that this woman and perhaps the man she lives with are running a dangerous, drug-based prostitution ring in Knox County, preying on children and adolescents with drug problems. They represent a terrible menace.
• I also believe that if this woman gave my son the drugs that nearly killed him and may have left him with some level of permanent disability, she should be charged with assault or possibly with attempted murder.
• Our family is ready to cooperate fully in every way with the investigation, although we understand that our son’s drug addiction may lead to legal liability for him. Our goals are for him to recover fully from his addiction, to heal his physical and mental injuries and to see the adults who preyed on him and gave him drugs that nearly killed him brought to justice. We never want to see another Knox County family go through what we are currently enduring.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or Henry’s father, Chris Granju with your questions in order to get the ball rolling on this important investigation. We appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to a thorough and timely investigation.

Sincerely,

Katie Allison Granju

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PLEASE READ THESE BLOG POSTS FIRST:

• It’s Time to Go Fully Public With What Happened to My Son, Henry Granju
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 1
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 2
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 3
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 4
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 5
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 6
• JUSTICE FOR HENRY – PART 7

If you are on Twitter (you can follow me at @kgranju),  please share a link to this blog post using the hashtag, #justiceforhenry