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Daycare run by wife of sex offender, but no laws broken

Every day thousands of Madison County parents send their kids off to daycare. It's a place where children, learn, grow and develop a place where their welfare shouldn't be in question. But, what if you found out a sex offender was visiting your child's daycare?

And, how would you feel if the sex offender was the director's husband?

According to DHR the director of Creative Beginnings Child Development Center, Ellen Griffin, is allowed to run a daycare by law, despite her husband's convicted sex offender status.

DHR says when they licensed her daycare in 2006 they told Mrs. Griffin her husband cannot be a part of the business, but after months of our investigation, a concerned mother contacted us and says she saw John Griffin on the property.

The catch -- the daycare owner admits it as well.

"As soon as I saw his picture I knew exactly who it was. I would never dream she would have let somebody like that in the daycare," says a concerned parent.

Creative Beginnings Child Development Center sits just off Highway 231/431 North in Madison County. It's licensed to a company called EMG ChildCare Incorporated, under Director Ellen Griffin.

It's listed on the state's select daycare web site. What's not listed is the fact the director's husband is a registered sex offender.

"[McGlohn] "That is the man?"

"This is definitely the man, John Griffin," says a mother who wants to remain anonymous says she met 57-year-old John Wesley Griffin at the daycare while her daughter was in school there.

Then she came across him one day while scanning the Sheriff's office web site. We learned Griffin was convicted in Georgia in 1988 for molesting and sodomizing a 4 -year old girl.

This mother never sent her daughter back, "I shook his hand, I met him, he was just standing there in the daycare like he was an ordinary person."

We found Director Ellen Griffin at the daycare. Here's what she has to say: "[Reporter] We have witnesses that place him, that have met him at your business? [Griffin] Umhum.

[Reporter] That's illegal to have him on the property of your daycare? [Griffin] Yes we know.

[Reporter] You know? [Griffin] Umhum."

She says his arrest was before they got married.

Griffin says DHR knows about her husband's conviction as a sex offender and knows he's been at her daycare, "DHR was here that day, I was having surgery, my husband came to pick me up, he came my building to get my keys to get the bus, he was in the building, Trisha was here with him, he was in, he was out.
[Reporter] Who's Trisha?

The DHR... [Reporter] So, DHR knows that he is a sex offender?

Um hum, yes, and it's fine with her and with them. He has written a letter," says Griffin.

DHR Spokesman Barry Spear confirms they knew Ellen Griffin's husband was a sex offender, but there's no law preventing her from running a daycare.

Spear says the business opened in August of 2006 and no complaints have ever been filed, but during our phone conversation, Spear says DHR knew Griffin had been on the property and says they have been in contact with the Madison County Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office disputes that, "One of my investigators received an anonymous phone call," says Madison County Chief Deputy Chris Stephens.

They say after that tip, they called DHR, and DHR has never called back.

"We have in fact contacted Mr. Griffin and indicated to him that we were investigating this issue and that if he was found to be in violation in any violation he could be charged," says Stephens.

"To know that I trusted them with my daughter and to put my daughter in a risk like that, every time that I think about it makes me sick," says the concerned parent, "How can she care about those kids and allow them to be put in that kind of situation?" she adds.

Mrs. Griffin says it's not up to her to let the parents at the daycare know, "[Reporter] Have you told your parents that your husband is a sex offender?

[Griffin] No.

[Reporter] Do you think that they have a right to know?

[Griffin] It's common knowledge, I don't hide it from anybody."  

The Madison County Sheriff's Office says John Griffin is now the subject of a formal investigation.

We tried today to get an update from DHR. Barry Spear says he still has not had time to look at the matter.

The WAFF 48 Investigators will try again on Thursday to make contact and will keep you posted on this case.