Missing girl’s caregiver had criminal record
MIAMI (AP) – Child welfare workers were unaware that a woman given custody of a 5-year-old girl whose disappearance went undetected for more than a year had a criminal record and used 20 different names in 20 years, officials said Saturday. A records check showed Geralyn Graham did time in a Tennessee prison for food stamp fraud, served five years probation for bad checks in Miami-Dade County and had been diagnosed with mental illness, the Miami Herald reported in Saturday’s editions.
Rilya Wilson was reported missing April 25 but had not been in Graham’s custody since January 2001. Graham, listed in state paperwork as the paternal grandmother, told police a woman she believed was from Florida’s child welfare agency took Rilya for evaluation and never returned her.
A statewide background check did not show Graham’s criminal record when the state gave her custody of Rilya in January 2000, the agency’s director said Saturday.
“It’s not a perfect system,” said Kathleen Kearney, secretary of the Department of Children and Families.
Kearney said her agency could not have known about Graham’s criminal past because, until 2001, it did not have access to the National Crime Information Center, a computerized index of criminal justice data. The state placed Rilya in Graham’s care six months after Graham was diagnosed with chronic pain and mental illness following a car accident, the Herald reported. Graham’s condition was likened to a form of psychosis, her lawyer, Edward Shohat, said Saturday.
“Ms. Graham does not have mental problems,” Shohat said. “You’re talking about a woman who has raised 11 children successfully. None of that has anything to do with her ability to raise a child or with the child that is missing.”
Kearney would not comment on whether the agency was aware of Graham’s medical history.
Graham’s lawyer also said she “used identities” about 30 years ago to hide from an abusive boyfriend. Shohat said he did not know of Graham’s criminal past other than the Tennessee case.
“There was a period in her life where she had some problems, but she acknowledged them and she didn’t hide anything from the DCF,” Shohat said.
Two of Rilya’s siblings were removed from Graham’s care late Wednesday by the state.
Rilya’s description is similar to that of the beheaded body of a child found last year in Kansas City, Mo., and investigators believe they might be the same child. Officials are comparing DNA taken from the dead child, nicknamed Precious Doe, and Rilya’s mother.
Court papers show Florida caseworkers filed status reports on Rilya’s custody and adoption status or participated in hearings at least five times during the period she was missing.
Rilya’s mother, Gloria Wilson, lost custody of the child because of a drug addiction. She has said that Graham is the girl’s godmother.