Joe Bankston and Gena Charlton were none too happy when police arrived at their Liberty County farm searching for a mass grave of dismembered children . . . especially after learning law enforcement were following the incredibly false vision of a "psychic and reverend" named Angel. 
 
 Nearly two years after the incident, a Texas judge has ordered the spiritual medium Presley Gridley to pay the couple $6.8 million in damages for needlessly drawing them into a national media storm that stretched from CNN to the New York Times. 
 
 It all started with Gridley's ill-fated phone call to the Hays County Sheriff's Office. 
 
 "I need to talk to someone about the kids that y'all have an Amber Alert on," she tells an emergency call center in early June 2011. Click here for the full recording provided by Liberty County blogger Allen Youngblood. 
 
 "They said y'all would also find their bones there. T here's stuff written all over the walls in blood." 
 
 Gridley gives the address of a farmhouse in Hull,, a small town roughly an hour northwest of Houston. While she says she's never been to the home, she does know via the spirit world that the male homeowner is a "carny," while his partner is a professional truck driver. The man's daughter and her boyfriend also live in the house. 
 
 From a paranormal perspective, Gridley was actually right about Gena's job as a truck driver as well as Bankston's daughter and boyfriend staying at the home . . . but the right ends there. 
 
 "You'll think I'm crazy, but have you ever heard of Sylvia Browne? She's actually a psychic, and I'm a reverend and a psychic. Some of their spirits talk to me. There were 32 of them that told me they were kids and they're actually there, and they think these kids are there." 
 
 The child spirits apparently told her they were killed as part of a sacrifice. 
 
 "They said y'all would also find their bones there. They said their bones are like in the walls. And also if you'll look with some kind of light or whatever, there's stuff written all over the walls in blood." 
 
 Local investigators rushed to the Bankston-Charlton farm along with swarms of news reporters. 
 
 The subsequent fruitless search earned Liberty County Sheriff's Office its first and only Bum Steer Award from Texas Monthly in January 2012. ||||| 'Psychic' who reported mass grave north of Houston must pay $7 million 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Image 1 of 6 Liberty County Judge Craig McNair alerts the media that authorities found no dead bodies in a house near Hardin, June 12, 2011. Liberty County Judge Craig McNair alerts the media that authorities found no dead bodies in a house near Hardin, June 12, 2011. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle Image 2 of 6 Local and national media return to their vehicles after Capt. Rex Evans of the Liberty County Sheriff's Department said dead bodies weren't found, June 2011. Local and national media return to their vehicles after Capt. Rex Evans of the Liberty County Sheriff's Department said dead bodies weren't found, June 2011. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle Image 3 of 6 Law enforcement officials on the scene of a home in Hardin where a tipster told them 25 to 30 bodies are buried in 2011. Law enforcement officials on the scene of a home in Hardin where a tipster told them 25 to 30 bodies are buried in 2011. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Chronicle Image 4 of 6 Liberty County Sheriff's Office Capt. Rex Evans says investigators are hoping to talk with the person, a self-professed psychic, who gave them the tip, in June 2011. Liberty County Sheriff's Office Capt. Rex Evans says investigators are hoping to talk with the person, a self-professed psychic, who gave them the tip, in June 2011. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle Image 5 of 6 Law enforcement officials converge on the scene, June 12, 2011, over a tip of 20-30 bodies, including some children. Law enforcement officials converge on the scene, June 12, 2011, over a tip of 20-30 bodies, including some children. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Associated Press Image 6 of 6 Liberty County Sheriff's Office, FBI, Texas DPS, and Texas Rangers officers work the scene, in June 2011. Liberty County Sheriff's Office, FBI, Texas DPS, and Texas Rangers officers work the scene, in June 2011. Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle 'Psychic' who reported mass grave north of Houston must pay $7 million 1 / 6 Back to Gallery 
 
 A self-described psychic who triggered a media frenzy when she told authorities a Liberty County couple had a mass grave on their property has been ordered to pay the couple $6.8 million. 
 
 A Dallas County judge issued the judgment May 7 against Presley "Rhonda" Gridley, the sole remaining defendant in a lawsuit filed a year ago. 
 
 "Whether it will be collectible, we're going to pursue that," said Dallas attorney Andrew Sommerman. 
 
 He represents plaintiffs Joe Bankston and Gena Charlton in the suit that has concluded, except for efforts to collect the judgment. 
 
 Gridley, 50, failed to appear in court May 7 for the bench trial before Judge Carl Ginsberg in the 193rd State District Court, records stated. 
 
 Ginsberg found that Gridley had made defamatory statements about Bankson and Charlton on June 6, 2011, when she volunteered false information to the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, claiming that a mass grave containing dismembered bodies was at the plaintiffs' home. 
 
 The defendant's false statement injured the plaintiffs' reputation and exposed them to public hatred, contempt, ridicule and financial injury, the complaint stated. 
 
 For damages suffered, the judge awarded $3 million in damages to Bankson and $3,849,000 to Charlton, plus 5 percent interest from the date of the occurrence in 2011. 
 
 The suit was filed June 5, 2012, almost exactly a year after the alleged incident took place. 
 
 In the initial complaint and other documents filed through August 2011, Gridley was referred to as "Jane Doe, a self-proclaimed psychic going by the name of 'Angel.'" Her name began appearing in court documents as Presley "Rhonda" Gridley in September. 
 
 The suit alleges that Gridley called the Liberty County Sheriff's Office and falsely claimed that 25 to 30 dismembered bodies were buried in a mass grave at the plaintiffs' residence. 
 
 The sheriff's office repeated the false statements to various news media organizations and provided the plaintiff's address, the suit states. 
 
 "Over the course of the day, media defendants began to exaggerate and eventually make up facts about Plaintiffs, including that a mass grave existed on the property, including the bodies of children," the suit states. 
 
 Media reports based upon false claims of found bodies were circulated worldwide, the suit said. 
 
 When initially filed, the suit's defendants included Liberty County and six media outlets, which over time were dismissed. 
 
 The suit was filed in Dallas County because one of the defendants, Belo Corp., has its principal place of business there, according to the initial complaint. 
 
 A few days after the 2011 incident, Gridley told the Houston Chronicle that she has had visions her entire life. After confiding with two friends who were having similar visions about three children who might be in trouble, she told the Chronicle she contacted the Liberty County Sheriff's Office.
– A psychic peering into the lives of a Houston couple a few years ago should have seen a future filled with riches. Instead, she labeled them as mass murderers—falsely, as it turns out—and now a judge has ordered her to pay them $7 million for defamation, reports the Houston Chronicle. The strange case began in 2011 when Presley "Rhonda" Gridley called police to say that she had a vision of a mass grave on the property of Joe Bankston and Gena Charlton. At the time, police were looking for some missing kids in a high-profile Amber Alert case, notes Houston.culturemap. When the psychic told them the kids could be found in the alleged mass grave, cops acted on the tip and mounted a search. The media got wind of it and, voila, Bankston and Charlton were in the news as potential child-killers. They've now got their revenge thanks to the defamation ruling, although it's not clear how Gridley could possibly come up with the money.