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72 Chapter Four Florida: Scandal, Electoral Politics, and Leadership Change In 2002 Florida’s child welfare system received national attention when it was discovered that five-year-old Rilya Wilson had been missing from her foster home for fifteen months without anyone from the Department of Children and Families (DCF) noticing.1 Her caretakers reported that someone claiming to be from DCF had removed the girl from their home for a medical evaluation and then not returned her. DCF had no record of any such removal. Rilya’s disappearance was initially uncovered after her caseworker, Deborah Muskelly, was discovered falsifying visitation reports in another case. After the caseworker resigned, the case was transferred to a new worker in the DCF adoptions unit, who discovered that the five-year-old was missing. Adding to the scandal was the fact that after DCF’s discovery, the agency waited six days to report Rilya missing to the police. Media stories of the little girl’s disappearance were followed by reports that as many as five hundred children in DCF custody were missing.2 The police initially stated that Rilya’s primary caretaker, Geralyn Graham, was not a suspect in the case. However, as more information came out, it was reported that Graham had a long criminal history, including fraud and grand theft auto, that should have precluded her becoming a foster parent. In addition she had been diagnosed as psychotic with paranoid delusions a few years before receiving custody of Rilya and her sister Rodericka, a fact not uncovered by DCF when deciding whether to place the children with Graham, even though her mental health diagnosis was part of her case file in the division of DCF responsible for income assistance (Miller and De Valle 2002a). On May 1, 2002, two weeks after discovering that Rilya was missing, DCF removed Rilya’s younger sister from Graham’s home, citing concerns for her safety. The judge in the case then entered into a legal battle with DCF over who had the authority to decide where to place Rodericka (an appeals court ruled in favor of the judge) and later berated the agency for failing to follow up on court orders from two years prior that Rodericka have a complete medical and developmental assessment (Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel 2002). According to Florida: Scandal, Electoral Politics, and Leadership Change 73 the judge, Rodericka had a developmental delay of at least one year and an eye problem that should have received medical attention. As the criminal investigation continued, more questions were raised about the stories of Graham and Rilya’s other caregivers. A review of DCF records revealed that Graham had continued to list Rilya as living with her when applying for food stamps and welfare benefits (Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel 2002; Miller and De Valle 2002a). Although Graham was initially described in media accounts as Rilya’s grandmother and had been receiving payments designated for relative caregivers, Rilya’s biological mother reported that Graham was in fact not a blood relative but a godmother. Similarly, the other woman living in the house, Pamela Graham, was initially described by Geralyn Graham as her sister but was also later suspected not to be a blood relative (Nieves 2002c). Meanwhile, police told reporters that both women had failed lie detector tests (Governor’s Blue Ribbon Panel 2002). Muskelly, Rilya’s caseworker before she resigned, reportedly told police that Geralyn Graham had called her several times over the previous fifteen months, not—as Graham claimed—to see when Rilya was coming home, but rather to report that Rilya and her sister were doing well. According to newspaper reports an unidentified medical professional recalled seeing Rilya during an appointment for Rodericka in February 2002, a month after Graham claimed that Rilya had been removed from her home. In 2003 Graham was sentenced to five years in jail for fraud. In 2005 Graham was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges, although Rilya Wilson’s body has never been recovered and the case has not yet gone to trial. Scandal Aftermath Critical to understanding the politics of child welfare in Florida is the fact that crises in the state-administered child welfare system have coincided in recent years with gubernatorial campaigns. The 1998 governor’s race took place against a backdrop of child welfare scandals, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush made criticism of DCF an issue in his campaign. During the campaign and after his election he called...

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