GUILTY FL - Rilya Wilson, 5, Miami, 18 Jan 2001

[CinnamonGirl]

Something needs to be done here in Florida about the children services and all the other lame laws they have here,regarding sex offenders.Florida better wake up and start protecting the kids here.

 

[mysteriew]

The star witness in the murder case against the caregiver of 4-year-old Rilya Wilson is no longer willing to cooperate with prosecutors, her attorney said on Thursday.

Miami attorney Ellis Rubin said Robin Lunceford has experienced a "number of things" in recent months and it is "very much in doubt" that she will testify against Geralyn Graham, the foster parent charged with first-degree murder.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-drilya17jun17,0,7379370.story?coll=sfla-news-miami

 

[mysteriew]

A judge ruled Tuesday that Geralyn Graham, the woman accused of murdering foster child Rilya Wilson, deserved to be released on bond after the key witness against her refused to testify.

Although Graham, 59, will remain behind bars until May at the earliest because she is serving a sentence for an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction, her attorney said the decision by Circuit Judge Andrew Hague to grant bond in Rilya's killing suggested the prosecution's case is weak.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/...3/APN/508230989&cachetime=3&template=dateline

 

[concernedperson]

A judge ruled Tuesday that Geralyn Graham, the woman accused of murdering foster child Rilya Wilson, deserved to be released on bond after the key witness against her refused to testify.

Although Graham, 59, will remain behind bars until May at the earliest because she is serving a sentence for an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction, her attorney said the decision by Circuit Judge Andrew Hague to grant bond in Rilya's killing suggested the prosecution's case is weak.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/...3/APN/508230989&cachetime=3&template=dateline

And so it goes. Rilya is gone and lost in the system and not one loving person has shown up.Deny everything and point to obscurity but this child is dead and something is so wrong with that.We don't ask to be born ,but if we are we deserve a modicum of respect for our existence. We can't know about everyone that needs to be loved but we can't deny them the right. Welfare fraud and other entitlement issues are just part and parcel to the mindset. Throwaway people.Used by the system....to continue a fraud it is so upsetting to me.

 

[mysteriew]

Police and prosecutors say Rilya Wilson is dead, and they have charged her former caregiver with killing her. But the Miami judge who presided over Rilya's foster-care welfare case continues to hold hearings into her welfare.
Every six months during Rilya Wilson's short life, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman held a hearing to make sure the little girl was safe and receiving proper care from state child-welfare workers. Such judicial reviews occur for all children taken from their parents because of abuse or neglect.
A pig-tailed, chubby-cheeked youngster who was taken into foster care shortly after her birth in 1995, Rilya was missing for more than a year when Department of Children & Families officials discovered in 2002 that she was gone. Her DCF-approved caregiver, Geralyn Graham, has been charged with killing Rilya.
And though Rilya is officially considered dead in Miami's criminal courthouse, her presence can still be felt at the juvenile courthouse a few miles away.
''There's no body,'' Lederman said Friday at the regularly scheduled review of Rilya's case, in an apparent explanation for the hearing.

Though officials promised to reform the state's system for tracking children in state care, missing and runaway foster children continue to make news in Florida. On Friday, DCF's website listed 537 children as missing from state care.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/13429283.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_local

 

[aussiegran]

And so it goes. Rilya is gone and lost in the system and not one loving person has shown up.Deny everything and point to obscurity but this child is dead and something is so wrong with that.We don't ask to be born ,but if we are we deserve a modicum of respect for our existence. We can't know about everyone that needs to be loved but we can't deny them the right. Welfare fraud and other entitlement issues are just part and parcel to the mindset. Throwaway people.Used by the system....to continue a fraud it is so upsetting to me.

You are so right CP
This is one of the most distressing stories i have read ,this poor little girl .:furious:
I sure hope they have enough evidence when it goes to trial this B*tch should go down.:furious:

 

[KatherineQ]

For everyone who blames the social worker here, I wish they could work for CPS for a year or two. It's too much. It's horrible that this girl wasn't checked on, but social welfare usually employs girls right out of college, gives them more than they can do in 65 hours a week, and pays them minimum for 40 hours.

I've been there, done that. I've sat on couches in dark Section 8 apartments trying to do baby assessments in dark rooms while an adult man is sleeping on the same couch I was sitting on. There aren't enough foster care providers to go around, and that's why a lot of clearly abused children are left where they are.

If all of us who cry *tears* day after day for these children on the internet would actually get up out of our computer chairs and do foster care, I think the world would be a better place.

 

[mysteriew]

Katherine, in most cases it is not the social worker that is the problem.
In this case it is the combo- a social worker who was lying about doing her job- she said she was doing her visits, but she was actually working a second job. And a system that covered up the problem, under the guise of 'we cannot release that info'.
I agree with you that there are huge problems in the system. Caseworkers are often inexperienced, underpaid and overworked. Not only that the court system, ofter does not support it- when they find out about an abused chid, often the courts will release the child back to the parents.
But it seems that in some cases at least, there seems to be situation where the agency will often try to cover up (as they did in this case) in order to protect the system. Because if it became known, it would mean more work, and possible problems with funding.
The think is- when a system is broken- esp. a system that works with kids- it needs to be fixed.

 

[Opie]

KatherineQ, God bless anyone who can be a social worker and do a good job. It would be the nature of the job rather than the overwhelming job that I am afraid would get to me. I seem to have little tolerance for idiot parents. While all families involved with social workers certainly do not fall in that category, there seem to be a lot who do.

 

[Bobbisangel]

Has anything happened in this case? I checked on google but couldn't find any updates. That woman hasn't been taken to trial? This case is just sickening. I wonder if LE ever checked ponds in that area or talked to the other Graham woman to see where she used to take that little girl to play.

 

[italianchica]

Has anyone heard anything newon this case? It's been a while.

 

[bykerladi]

I couldn't find the outcome of the charges against her caretaker. Apparently though one of the suspects was cooperating with LE.


http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/17/rilya.charges/index.html

 

[Beyond Belief]

I thought two people went to jail. But it has been awhile.

 

[hoppyfrog]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/08/rilya.wilson.ap/index.html

It's now been more than six years since foster child Rilya Wilson went missing, a disappearance that led to a shakeup at Florida's child welfare agency and murder charges against the little girl's former caretaker.

Yet Rilya's body has never been found and there's little physical evidence against the woman accused of abusing and killing her, 61-year-old Geralyn Graham.

Faced with no firm evidence that a slaying occurred and no witness who can definitively identify Graham as the girl's killer, prosecutors have been assembling a largely circumstantial case, according to case records.

and

Graham, who maintains her innocence, is being held on $250,000 bond after completing a sentence on an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction. Her attorney, Michael Matters, said he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Rilya's death.

much, much more at link

 

[Spazkat9696]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/08/rilya.wilson.ap/index.html

It's now been more than six years since foster child Rilya Wilson went missing, a disappearance that led to a shakeup at Florida's child welfare agency and murder charges against the little girl's former caretaker.

Yet Rilya's body has never been found and there's little physical evidence against the woman accused of abusing and killing her, 61-year-old Geralyn Graham.

Faced with no firm evidence that a slaying occurred and no witness who can definitively identify Graham as the girl's killer, prosecutors have been assembling a largely circumstantial case, according to case records.

and

Graham, who maintains her innocence, is being held on $250,000 bond after completing a sentence on an unrelated motor vehicle fraud conviction. Her attorney, Michael Matters, said he expects prosecutors to seek the death penalty in Rilya's death.

much, much more at link

Good maybe she will tell where the body is in exchange for her own sorry life.

 

[Texas Mist]

I was thinking of Rilya tonite - and found that Geralyn Graham s/b on trial soon...I'll see if I can find a court docket, because things sure are quiet if this trial is indeed to start this year.


Rilya Wilson's Case Steps Forward

Judge wants trial to start this fall.

By WILLARD SHEPARD
Updated 9:53 PM EDT, Wed, Aug 4, 2010


"It will give you time to respond and for you to get them to me quickly," Judge Thorton said.
Wednesday Thornton told the prosecutor and defense attorneys enough is enough.

......................

Graham's live in partner has cooperated with authorities and the state attorney didn't want to talk today but has previously stated that Rilya’s disappearance was the result on an act of violence and the grand jury has indicted the child's former caretaker.

Defense lawyers say the state has no body, no forensic evidence, and witnesses who aren't credible. The judge wants the trial to start in the fall.
The time has come for Geralyn Graham to come to trial.

Graham facing the death penalty for allegedly killing Rilya Wilson-- the four year old foster child in Graham's care. Ten years ago all of South Florida searched for Wilson, who was in the custody of the Department of Children and Family when she disappeared. Back then, outrage of the fact that DCF lost track of her. The case worker lied about visits to see Rilya.

more here

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Rilya-Wilsons-case-steps-forward-99961869.html

 

[daisy7]

Rilya Wilson is still missing.

The foster child's disappearance in 2000, and the uproar after its belated discovery, led to sweeping changes in the state's child welfare system. But no one knows for certain whether the chubby-cheeked 4-year-old fixed forever in a single official photograph is alive or dead.

Next month Rilya's onetime caregiver, accused of kidnapping, abusing and smothering her, is scheduled to stand trial in an oft-delayed case that poses the ultimate challenge for prosecutors.

"In a homicide case, generally there is a body, and there is not one here," said attorney Scott Sakin, who is defending the caregiver, Geralyn Graham.

When Graham was indicted by a Miami-Dade grand jury in March 2005 on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated child abuse, prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.

But at a hearing earlier this year, they quietly abandoned that quest, opting instead to ask for life in prison. While confirming the decision, State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Terry Chavez said last week that she could not elaborate.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/11/2402118/trial-nears-for-woman-charged.html#ixzz1XkApZOMP

 

[Cubby]

I didn't see Rilya's Charley Project profile listed within the thread so here it is.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wilson_rilya.html

I'm flabbergasted Lunceford is using this tragedy to try and negotiate a ridiculous deal with prosecutors for herself. I'm praying the prosecution can get a conviction without Lunceford's assistance, anyone who would selfishly use a murdered child in that way doesn't deserve any deal.

And of course praying Rilya's remains will one day be found.

 

[Reader]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/fl-rilya-wilson-graham-trial-20111125,0,5739582.story

Long time coming...hopefully there will be some answers and Rilya will get justice!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/fl-rilya-wilson-graham-trial-20111125,0,5739582.story

MIAMI— A trial date has finally been set in the murder case of little Rilya Wilson.

The 4-year-old foster child disappeared in South Florida in 2000, sparking a shakeup at the state's child welfare agency.

Wilson's foster mother Geralyn Graham will go on trial March 26. Graham maintains her innocence in Rilya's death.

(not much more at the link..I'll look for more info.)
-------------

A good summary of the previous case from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/17/national/17rilya.html?ref=rilyawilson

 

[Reader]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/s...ami-foster-1991137.html?cxtype=rss_crime_1341


This link confirms the trial info and has pictures of Rilya....