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CNN Live Today
Search for Missing Florida Girl Continues
Aired May 06, 2002 - 14:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, the case of that missing five-year-old girl in Florida and a judge's call for accountability in her disappearance. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti is standing by now with more on today's hearing in Miami. What's the latest, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Catherine. Today, anger and fury in a Miami courtroom from the judge who has been overseeing the case of missing five-year-old Rilya Wilson.
The judge lashing out at Florida's child welfare system for not only having lost track of the child, but also in her words for misleading the court about this for over a year.
Now, the judge counted at least five hearings since last year about Rilya, who was placed in Florida's custody because of a drug addicted mother. After several no-shows in court, the caseworker, according to the judge, defrauded the court, reading what the caseworker wrote about Rilya and her little sister last August.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE CINDY LEDERMAN, MIAMI-DADE CO. COURT: The children were in their placement, the custodians are addressing the children's needs. The children are being supported in a family-like setting, and the children are placed with pre-adoptive parents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: But by then, the woman police say is Rilya's grandmother says she had no idea where the child was, that at least 15 months ago, someone who said they were from the child welfare agency picked up the little girl for tests and the grandmother says she's been unable to track down the child ever since.
Now, the judge is also outraged that late last week the state took into custody Rilya's little sister, also taking her from the grandmother's house, without first informing the court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEDERMAN: Why, after everything that has happened in this case, after I have been kept in the dark about the status and well-being and placement of this child for one year, why would you think I would allow the department to remove this child's sibling without my consent? Why would you even think that? And why would you try? What is the department hiding?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: The judge calls the state's handling of this case, in her words, despicable.
Now, today, Florida Government Jeb Bush has named a blue ribbon panel to look into what happened here, and in the meantime, in Kansas City, Missouri, authorities there have received a DNA sample from Rilya's mother so that they can cross-check it against the DNA of an identified little girl whose body was discovered more than a year ago, about the same time Rilya became missing, to see whether in fact this is the same child.
You'll remember, perhaps, that in earlier tests, palm prints between the unidentified girl and little Rilya did not match up.
So the plot thickens in this case -- Catherine.
CALLAWAY: Yes, it certainly does, Susan.
What exactly can the state do in this situation, I don't want to say as punishment, but to try to see that this doesn't happen again. What exactly can the state do, or the judge in this case?
CANDIOTTI: Well, that's a question that's up to the judge to look into. That is something that authorities are looking into, both the state attorney's office and the police are investigating whether they will charge anyone with a crime here.
For example, they are investigating whether to press charges against the casework in this case if indeed she did, in the words of the judge, defraud the court by filing false paperwork.
CALLAWAY: Well, no doubt they certainly have the attention of the judge, don't they?
Thank you very much, Susan Candiotti, with the latest from Miami. Thanks, Susan.
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