Posted on 05/11/2002 2:05:27 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
MIAMI, May 10, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Testing showed no DNA match between missing 5-year-old Miami girl, Rilya Wilson, and a girl whose beheaded body was found in Kansas City, Mo., police said Friday. Continues.
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A Smear Campaign against Gov. Bush flounders
The case of a missing 5-year old Miami girl, Rilya Wilson, appears to be taking some interesting -- if unexpected -- twists and turns. The new developments, if they pan out, bode ill for Florida Democrats who were hoping to use the high-profile missing persons case as campaign fodder this fall against popular incumbent Governor, Jeb Bush, the President's brother.
Briefly, little Rilya Wilson has been missing for more than fifteen months. The state's protective services had placed the little girl under the care of Geralyn Graham, Rilya's alleged grandmother, who claims a state child welfare worker took her for "medical tests" in January, 2001. Graham claims she hasn't seen the little girl since. Records show April 25 -- fifteen months later -- as the date the agency first reported the child as missing.
Rilya's mother, Gloria Wilson, was a crack addict and lost custody of her and two other children as a result. Graham was not Rilya's first caretaker, however. In April 2000, the girl was removed from the home of Pamela Kendrick, who had custody of her since 1996. Gloria had met Kendrick while dating her nephew.
Newly disclosed details put Graham's credibility under a cloud of suspicion, however.
Miami-Dade police report that Geralyn and Pamela Graham, her sister, failed polygraph tests, though spokesman Ed Munn says the "deceptive results may be attributed to questions other than the child." The polygraph tests had been administered the previous week.
Munn refused to say precisely what the Grahams were being deceptive about, however. Carlos Alvarez, Miami-Dade police chief, can't rule out the Grahams as possible suspects in the case.
"Everybody involved in this case is being investigated. Nobody is immune", he said.
But damaging polygraph results aren't the only problem the Grahams appear to be facing.
According to WPLG-TV, a local television station, court records show Geralyn suffering from chronic memory loss and hallucinations -- full-fledged dementia, according to one psychologist -- following a 1996 car accident and many surgeries since.
Geralyn's mental problems had grown so severe, in fact, that her sister Pamela became her legal guardian, according to a letter she wrote last October in a landlord-tenant lawsuit. Geralyn "now suffers from dementia", her sister wrote.
Moreover, from court records in connection with a $2.5 million lawsuit Geralyn Graham filed against Alamo Rent-A-Car, WPLG uncovered a treasure trove of yet more damaging information: Geralyn used no fewer than 14 aliases, five Social Security numbers and a half dozen drivers licenses.
Most devastating of all, Geralyn has a criminal history: Bad check writing and Grand Theft in Tennessee.
With the Grahams' credibility in tatters, Democrats face an uphill struggle trying to pin the blame cleanly on Gov. Bush, who in some polls leads Janet Reno, former Clinton Attorney General and likely Democrat nominee, by as much as 17% percentage points.
To be sure, state law required monthly follow-ups in foster cases; nevertheless, as their credibility melts under the klieg lights and their alibis unravel, the Grahams move to center-stage and become the focus of increasing suspicion.
(Kathleen Kearney, head of the Florida Department of Child and Families, points out that the National Crime Information Center was not accessible to Florida as of January, 2001, which is why Geralyn's criminal history went undetected even after her name was run through the state's database.)
For Governor Bush, the new wrinkles mean less political pressure on him; for frustrated Democrats, it's one less issue they can use against the Governor in the fall.
Indeed, far from aloof, Governor Bush has stayed on top of developments, visiting with investigators in Miami yesterday for an update on the probe.
That Democrats would stoop to turn little Rilya into a political football for advantage shows their level of desperation -- and the depth of their depravity.
Besides, for most voters, it's hard to imagine how children could conceivably be better off with Reno, architect of the deadly Waco fiasco, as governor. Dozens of children (and 60+ adults) died in an inferno after Reno ordered a tank and gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993.
Little Elian Gonzalez's forced return to communist Cuba at the hands of then Attorney General Reno is as fresh in the minds of Cuban-Americans today as it was that awful April morning, two years ago, when INS kidnappers ripped a 6-year old boy at gun point from his loving Miami family.
Meanwhile, Floridians were relieved to learn yesterday that new DNA test results show no match between Rilya and the body of a slain, unidentified Kansas City girl, known as "Precious Doe".
Let's all pray that precious little Rilya is found alive and well soon.
Anyway, that's
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
The way this story has been handled has had me steaming for days now. The stretching the local media and now cable news to blame this tragedy on Gov. Bush is so transparent I'm almost embarrassed for dems and their little minions in media. Everytime I walked by the TV today (msnbc was on) little Ricky Sanchez or that witchey looking blond were drooling all over this story almost trying to hide their glee. I do take comfort that this means the dems are desparate because in the end they will have egg on face.
One thing... The little girl was supposedly picked up by a DFC worker for a check up (?) from her grandmother. Was there ever a point the grandmother said, hey where's my grandbaby? One day later, a week, a month? Did she ever call and speak to someone to find out just where her granddaughter was? Grandma's sister didn't even notice the little girl wasn't around? Perhaps I missed it, but haven't heard a single reporter ask that question yet.
With regard to the way the story is handled, it has always bothered me to think that stories of this nature are thrown against the wall politically to see what they can make stick. There is, and has been, a lot of lying going on here by someone. The grandmother? The Welfare agency? Both? At some level the ball got dropped with respect to this poor child. The system is pathetically flawed. But using this as a political tool to cause destruction to Governor Bush is the type of thing that causes these problems to never have a good solution. I am sickened by the games that are played at the expense of innocent children who can not speak for themselves. :(
If I were concerned about polygraph it would be because I would not want an innocent person wrongly identified as guilty because of a polygraph. The test is only as good as the examiner. The equipment is 100% accurate. The variations in results are due to the ability of an examiner to properly structure the test and properly interpret those results. No test is cast in stone, however. If an examiner has "botched" the test, it is easily recognizable by someone trained in that area.
I appreciate your response, but I have read the documentation that supposedly supports the contentions about polygraph and I disagree. :)
Actually, I have a sinking feeling I do know. You're not of the logical gender. (And if I get this post yanked or even my account pulled, so be it.)
Let me "completely disagree with your statements" (actually I am pointing out a specific problem... but let me use your own terminology so you can see what it's like).
This scenario is okay. The other scenario, where the person is innocent but is gulled into believing that the polygraph will "prove" him guilty in court, is certainly not okay. And polygraphs are used to "divine facts" in other matters, such as pre-employment testing, where they are little more than snake oil.
Your evidence that anyone other than God himself could reliably identify a "botched" test? Remember this is about real life and real people and real misdeeds and real prosecution and real possibility of penalties and real guilt and real innocence, not some laboratory "crime" that can be controlled.
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