Rebecca Riley
April 11, 2002 - December 13, 2006
On December 13, 2006 at around 6:30am, a 911 call came
in and the
man, Michael Riley told the dispatcher:
"My daughter passed
away in the night"
Police went to the home where
Rebecca Riley had lived and found her
lifeless body, laying on
top of a clothes and a stuffed brown bear, she
was wearing only a pink Pullup.
Later,
there would be an investigation into why Michael Riley, who had been court
ordered to stay away, had been home alone with Rebecca when police arrived.
Denise Monteiro, from DSS
filed a request, a few days later, with the Probate And Family Court so
that a review could be done of the treatment of the children in the home,
by an independent medical agency:
"We wanted a second
opinion on everything"
Denise said that a second
opinion was asked for due to concerns
about other children in the
home, a six year old and an 11 year old.
Rebecca had been taken medication
and in the past, there had been
concerns of her taking too
much of the medication. The agency had
learned that the other two
children in the home had both been
diagnosed with the same problems
as Rebecca and were possibly
taking the same medications.
DSS took custody of both children and
placed them in foster homes,
for their own safety.
 .....
Dr. Kayoko Kifuji had diagnosed
five year old Rebecca with Bipolar
disorder, Attention Deficit
and Hyperactivity Disorder. Rebecca was
prescribed Clonidine, which
is a blood pressure medication that is, at times, used to calm aggressive
children. Also prescribed were Seroquel which is an anti psychotic drug
and Depakote which is an antiseizure drug. Rebecca died from an overdose
of a mixture of these medications. Clonidine and Depakote are not even
approved by the FDA for treatment in children, only adults.
"After the child died,
there was so much questioning
about medication, we
decided to seek an independent
second opinion. We
hadn't received an autopsy report
about her death, and
we were concerned that the two
children could face
similar trauma"
Police Chief Richard Billings
said that an investigation into the death
of Rebecca would continue,
though he didn't say if charges would be
brought against Dr. Kifuji
or any of the pharmacists who had given
the medications to Rebecca.
Between the dates of August 15 and
November 27, 15 refills for
Clonidine, which is the drug that killed
Rebecca, were given at Walgreens.
Michael Polzin, the spokesman for
Walgreens said that this
company was not under investigation:
"We are deeply saddened
to hear about this. As far
as the medication that
was taken, we filled a valid
prescription authorized
by the patient's physician,
and all of the appropriate
drug information and
directions were given
to the family"
This is disturbing to me.
A Pharmacist SHOULD know if a drug is
appropriate for a child or
if the FDA approves it for children or not.
Questions SHOULD have
been asked and reports to the appropriate
people SHOULD have
been made saying that a child had been given
medication meant ONLY
for adults.
The State Department Of Social
Services had received a report that
stated concerns about Rebecca
taking too many drugs, the summer
before she died. The case
was dropped after Rebecca's mother and
her doctor said that the
treatment was appropriate. A therapist had
been the one to make the
report and DSS chose NOT to do a review
at that time. That review
wouldn't come until it was too late to save
Rebecca.
That complaint would not be
the first to come in about the Riley
family. DSS had been involved
with them since December of 2002,
though not always about medications
or about Rebecca. Another
complaint was filed in June
of 2005 when the oldest child in the home was taken to the hospital. Doctors
told DSS that he was put into the
hospital due to a medical
condition.
In July of 2005 DSS met with
doctors, neurologist and other medical
professionals who were treating
Rebecca, her siblings and Carolyn
Riley, their mother. A therapist
who had visited their home had told
DSS that Carolyn was sluggish
and seemed to be drugged up. It was
later revealed that Carolyn
was taking Paxil for depression:
"We were assured that
the levels and the amount were
within the guidelines.
We were assured by the mother's
doctors as well that
the mother was not receiving
too much medication"
The Therapist from South Bay
Mental Health Center told police that
she was concerned about the
type and amount of medication that had
been prescribed for Rebecca.
Oddly, Dr. Kifuji said he was also
concerned, during a phone
conversation. Why would a man who had
been the one to prescribe
the medications, then turn around and say
that he was concerned about
them?
In October of 2005, another
complaint came in saying that Michael
Riley had grabbed one of
the children by the neck and slammed his
head against the back window
of his truck. Carolyn agreed to file a
restraining order against
him to keep him away from her and the
children. She later allowed
the order to lapse, though on November
19, 2005, DSS contacted her
and she said that the order was current
and that she had plans to
move:
"We wanted to meet with
her and the children and
reassure that things
are going good. She assured us
that the husband would
not be coming to
live with the family"
DSS had told Michael Riley
that he was NOT to be around the children without supervision. In
spite of that and the supposed restraining
order, Michael moved back
in with the family only two weeks before
Rebecca's death. Rebecca's
death brought about the arrests and
charges of first degree murder
against Michael and Carolyn stating
that they had given her a
fatal does of an Antihyperactivity drug, that
drug was Clonidine.
The Medical Examiners office
ruled that Rebecca had died from
"Intoxication due to combined
affects" of the drugs she was on:
"This occurred as a
result of the intentional overdose of
Rebecca with clonidine.
The manner of death was
determined to be homicide"
Lawmakers planned to hold
a meeting where Psychiatrists, Physicians, Pharmacists and others would
discuss if children were being over- prescribed power medications:
"The Rebecca Riley case
represents a tremendous failure
by the state, parents,
physician, and pharmacy, and
highlights the need
for closer scrutiny of the medications
being administered
to children"
Representative Peter
J. Koutoujian
Committee on Child
Abuse and Neglect
Peter wanted to know why the
agency was unable to save the life of
Rebecca with the history
they had with the Riley family. Peter said
that her parents, the Psychiatrist
and the pharmacies that filled the
prescriptions all played
a part in her death:
"You've got four levels
that could have caught something,
and the confluence
of misses that created a window
for tragedy"
Peter also said that he wanted Pharmacists, Physicians,
Psychiatrists
and other medical specialists to testify a a hearing
that would take
place that March:
"The role of this committee
will not be to assess blame.
We've got to know what
went wrong here, so this
travesty is never replicated
in the future"
The mothers of Michael and
Carolyn stated that they were both
innocent and would never
hurt their children. Valerie Berio, Carolyn's
mother said that they had
known each other since they were very
young and had gotten married
in 1994. Valerie said that Michael was
on disability and was unemployed.
She also said that Rebecca had
been hyperactive in school,
but, school administrators had recently
described her as being "a
little too quiet". Valerie said that the charges against Michael and Carolyn
were ludicrous:
"She was their treasure,
their angel. They loved her
more than life itself.
They didn't consciously give her
anything to make her
go to sleep and not wake up.
Michael is the sweetest
kid in the world. They would
have never wanted to
hurt their daughter. I love him
like he's my own kid"
Michael's mother, Kathleen
Riley said that Michael and Carolyn were
great parents:
"I can't believe this
is happening. It's a terrible disgrace.
I have no idea how
anyone could say this is deliberate.
I'm shocked. They loved
their children"
Kathleen told about how Carolyn
had miscarried six years ago and
they had been living separately
for about a year before Rebecca had
died, though they were both
home the morning she had died:
"He's been a wonderful
father. All the charges against
them are false. He
cried at night because he had to live
with me for the past
year. He's been under such pressure.
The poor kid. I don't
know how he's going to handle this.
They just wanted to
be together"
In November of 2007,
Michael Riley was in court over allegations
that he had tried to rape
a 13 year old girl. The court ruled that even
though Michael had written
down fantasies about sex between adults
and children, he didn't try
to make the fantasies real.
However, Michael, who was
35 at that time, was found guilty of
giving explicit stories to
the 13 year old child, to read. Michael was
sentenced to 2 1/2 years
in prison for that. The child is the daughter
of Carolyn, from a previous
relationship. Michael was found innocent
of sexual assault with intent
to rape a child under the age of 14 and
four counts of indecent assault
and battery on a child under the age
of 14.
The girl who had been 13 at
the time, was now 15 years old and had
accused Michael of fondling
her during an overnight visit. The girl
said that Michael had given
her the binder with Michael's fantasy
stories that was titled "Fantasy
Porn By Michael J. Riley", he told her
to read the stories that
he had written in the binder, about sex
between adults and children.
Michael's lawyer, Julian Hernon,
asked the jury to consider that there were inconsistencies in the story
of the 13 year old girl when she had told about what happened. The girl
had testified that she had heard
about the binder and the
stories Michael had written before he had
handed it to her and claims
he told her NOT to read them. Juliann said that she believes the
child found the binder and read a story in it
and later used that story
as a basis for her complaint:
“She wasn’t handed that
open binder, she was curious,
as any adolescent would
be”
David Traub, a spokesman for
Norfolk County District Attorney,
William Keating, had nothing
but praise for the 13 year old girl who
had testified against Michael:
“It is important here
to recognize the courage of
the victim. She stood
up there and followed this through
to a verdict. Without
that victims courage, we would
not have gotten this
2 1/2-year sentence”
On October 30, 2008,
Carolyn was ordered released from jail on her own recognizance. She would
have to prove to the judge that she had a place to live before she would
actually be released. She was released in November of 2008 after a judge
reduced the charges that
she and Michael would face
from first degree murder to second degree murder. Michael was held without
bail.
In February of 2009,
prosecutors were trying to get Carolyn back
into jail after an appeals
court reinstated that original charge of first
degree murder, claiming there
was new evidence that the death of
Rebecca was premeditated.
Assistant District Attorney, Frank
Middleton, asked the judge
to keep Carolyn in jail without bail. A
trial date has been set for
August 10, 2009.
A seven page ruling said that
there was evidence that Michael had
often told Carolyn to give
the children more medication than what was prescribed in order to "quiet
them down and make them pass out":
"Whenever they began
to annoy him, he told Carolyn
to shut them up with
Clonidine, telling her to 'give them
their pills and
give them their meds. Michael was abusive
and preferred his car
to the children"
Judge Joseph Grasso
Jr.
Michael's lawyer, Jon Darrell,
said that he is going to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court:
"I think the evidence
was insufficient to establish first-degree murder or any prong of murder.
My original request
was that this should be reduced
to manslaughter, and
that's still my position"
Though disappointed with the
ruling, Carolyn's lawyer, Michael
Bourbeau said he would not
appeal the ruling:
"She did not die of
a drug overdose, which would
make it not a homicide.
This is a death by
natural causes"
Michael Bourbeau
Plymouth District Attorney
Timothy Cruz said that prosecutors are
happy with the ruling.
In March of 2009,
a lawsuit was filed against Dr Kayoko Kifuji saying he should be held responsible
for the death of Rebecca and that he had diagnosed Rebecca too quickly,
with Bipolar Disorder. The claim also states that he did not monitor her
closely enough. Lawyers say that Rebecca's parents are to blame since they
gave her more than was prescribed of the medication.
Andrew Meyer Jr., the attorney
who represents the estate of Rebecca,
said that the amount of power
drugs that were prescribed by Dr Kifuji
turned her into a four year
old zombie and were responsible for her
death. The school nurse at
the Johnson Early Childhood Center had
talked to Dr Kifuji as well
as Carolyn about how the medication was
leaving Rebecca lethargic
and she wasn't able to participate to the
full extent, in school.
Dr. Kifuji was not charged
in the case, however, she voluntarily gave
up her medical license while
the case is being investigated. She still
says the blame is on the
parents who gave Rebecca too much of the
medication which had been
prescribed to her.
Below is a picture of the
memorial card passed out at Rebecca's funeral.
Read
A Timeline Of Events Surrounding Rebecca's Death
For information about preventing
child abuse in the state of Massachusetts, click the links below. If they
can't help you, ask for someone who can. NEVER give up looking for
help for an abused child!
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
  
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