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Missing girl's caretaker sentenced
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The caretaker of missing Rilya Wilson was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for using a friend's identity to buy a sport utility vehicle. "I just want to say I'm sorry. This wasn't intentional," defendant Geralyn Graham told the judge moments before he sentenced her. She wore a standard jail-issued red jumpsuit and used a walker because of an arthritic condition. Graham, who says she is 56, was convicted last month on four counts of title fraud and two counts of forgery. With credit for time served, she may be eligible for release in about 15 months, and then would face five years probation. Graham was caretaker for Rilya Wilson, a 5-year-old girl discovered missing by Florida social workers last April. It was only then the state of Florida determined the last time its social workers visited the girl was 15 months earlier, in January 2001. Graham has consistently claimed she gave the child to a social worker in 2001 for some tests and never saw her again, despite repeated calls she claims she made to Rilya's caseworkers. Police say they still have no clue to the youngster's whereabouts, and no one has been charged in the case. Her disappearance ultimately resulted in the resignation of the head of Florida's Department of Children and Families and the firing of a number of social workers involved in Rilya's case. In the search for Rilya, who would now be 6, investigators dug up her caretaker's questionable past, including the use of at least 40 aliases. Geralyn and Pamela Graham, who also helped care for the child, are accused of several other fraud charges, including welfare fraud. They are scheduled for a state welfare fraud case on March 31. Geralyn Graham has also been charged by a federal grand jury with eight counts related to illegal use of Social Security cards. On Thursday, a state prosecutor urged the judge to throw the book at her.
"She steals, she lies, she cheats and she does not learn from any punishment she receives," Assistant Miami-Dade State Attorney Sandra Miller told Judge Daryl Trawick. Graham previously spent two years in a federal prison in Tennessee for committing welfare fraud in that state. She could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in state prison. One of Graham's grown sons and a daughter pleaded with the judge to be lenient, but Trawick said the case "deserves strong punishment," pointing out her refusal to take responsibility for what she had done and apparent misstatements to a pre-sentencing court officer. Trawick said he did not let Rilya's disappearance play any role in the sentencing.
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