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MIAMI — A judge lashed out Monday at the state Depart¬ment of Children & Families, calling its handling of the case of a missing 5-year-old girl “ab¬solutely despicable.”
Meanwhile, lawyers argued over who actually was taking care of Rilya Wilson when she disappeared 16 months ago, in¬jecting another layer of confu¬sion into the case.
“It is absolutely despicable what happened in this case,’ Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman told agency attorneys in court. “I don’t even know how to re¬spond to what has been done in this case by this caseworker, but she also has defrauded this court”
Children & Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney, a former Broward County juvenile judge, said she understood Lederman’s frustration over caseworker Deborah Muskelly’s “skimpy and sketchy report” and appar¬ent misrepresentations. ~ fully appreciate and under¬stand her anger and frustra¬tion,” Kearney said. “She had every right to be exceptionally angry.”
Gov. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, named a four-member panel to examine the state’s child protec¬tion system in Miami-Dade County. Responding to the panel’s for¬mation, Kearney said, ‘They will realize that this particular case, unbelievably tragic, is an isolated event and our children are safe.” Nearly two months after Wilson was last seen in January 2001, Muskeily told Lederman that Rilya was in day care, the Rilya judge said. In a report submitted Aug. 31, 2001, Muskelly said Rilya’s custodian was addressing her needs, the juvenile court judge said. Detectives are now treating Rilya’s disappearance as a possi¬ble homicide. Investigators are waiting for DNA test results from police in Kansas City, Mo., to see if a girl found beheaded there in April 2001 was Rilya. The court hearing raised new questions about who had been caring for the child before her disappearance.
Linda Wells, the department’s top lawyer, said Pamela Graham had been given legal custody. She is the sister of Geralyn Gra¬ham, who has identified herself as the girl’s paternal grand¬mother. The state concedes the identity of Rilya’s father is in dispute. Maria Shohat, a lawyer for the Graharns, said the sisters were together and jointly cared for Rilya.
Geralyn Graham failed to bring her driver’s license on the day that she was to sign the cus¬tody papers, Shohat said. A de¬partment official suggested that Pamela Graham could provide her license instead, and the pa¬pers were signed giving Pamela Graham legal custody.
“They were always in the cus¬tody of both women. They al¬ways cared for the children,” Shohat said.
The actions of Muskelly, who resigned in March for her per¬formance in other cases, are a target of the criminal investiga¬tion involving Rilya. Kearney raised the possibility of criminal perjury charges against Muskel¬ly.
The judge said Rilya was ulti¬mately the court’s responsibility but said she held the DCF to blame.
Muskelly has denied wrong¬doing, and told the South Flori¬da Sun-Sentinel last Friday, “the case was not my responsibility,” Muskelly has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached for comment Monday.
Asked about the possibility of charges against Muskelly, Chief Assistant State Attorney Kathleen Hoague said, “I really can’t comment on the investigation itself.”
Charles Auslander, DCF dis¬trict administrator, defended a six-day delay in notifying police that Rilya was missing after an adoption worker reported it to a supervisor April
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