REBECCA RILEY - 4 yo (2006) - Brockton MA

BROCKTON —

The trial is about to begin in a case involving parents accused of
giving their 4-year-old daughter a fatal overdose of prescription
drugs.
Prosecutors allege Carolyn and Michael Riley overmedicated their
daughter, Rebecca, to keep her quiet and out of their way. The girl
died in her parents’ home in Hull in December 2006.


Jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday in Brockton Superior
Court, with opening statements expected the following week.
Judge Charles Hely must still rule on several defense motions,
including one by the defense to bar testimony about Carolyn Riley’s
alleged history of getting more pills than what was prescribed for
Rebecca.
Defense lawyers say the Rileys were following orders from their daughter’s psychiatrist.

BROCKTON, Mass. — A judge in
Massachusetts has denied a bid to dismiss murder charges against
parents accused of killing their 4-year-old daughter by overmedicating
her with prescription drugs.
Lawyers for Carolyn and Michael Riley argued Monday that the murder indictment
should be thrown out, arguing that a new medical report by a
prosecution expert supports the couple's claim that the girl died of
pneumonia.
Judge Charles Hely denied the motion late Monday.
Prosecutors say Rebecca appeared gravely ill in the days before her death in
December 2006. They claim the Rileys ignored pleas to take her to a
doctor and instead gave her an overdose of medication she had been
prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Wednesday in Brockton Superior Court.

The Massachusetts parents accused of killing their 4-year-old
daughter by overdosing her with prescription drugs will be tried
separately. Assistant District Attorney Frank Middleton said in
court Wednesday that prosecutors decided to hold separate trials for
Carolyn and Michael Riley after Judge Charles Hely ruled that certain
statements each of the Rileys made that might incriminate the other and
could not be heard at a joint trial. Those statements could be used in
separate trials. Jury selection in Carolyn Riley's trial is scheduled to start
today in Brockton Superior Court. No date was immediately set for Michael Riley's trial. Prosecutors
allege the Rileys gave their daughter Rebecca an overdose of
prescription drugs. The defense claims the girl died of pneumonia.

BROCKTON - Two decades ago, Congress was
abuzz over scandals involving indigent parents who fabricated
behavioral problems in their children to get disability payments for
mental disorders. Stunned by news of these so-called “crazy checks,’’
US lawmakers in 1996 enacted tougher standards for children to qualify
for such benefits.
But in a highly unusual criminal trial set to start on Tuesday, prosecutors
are expected to allege that stricter eligibility rules did not stop a
financially strapped Hull couple, Carolyn and Michael Riley, from
concocting an elaborate scheme involving powerful psychotropic drugs.
By 2006, everyone in the family was on the federal disability rolls,
except for the youngest child, 4-year-old Rebecca, whose application
had been denied. As the parents were appealing that decision, Rebecca
died in December 2006 of an alleged overdose of psychiatric drugs that
she had been prescribed for bipolar and hyperactivity disorders.
The parents now face first-degree murder charges.
The case triggered nationwide controversy over how psychiatrists could
prescribe such potent drugs to young children, but it also provided a
rare glimpse into how struggling families utilize and potentially
exploit the government’s disability system, in particular the
fast-growing cash-assistance program to help indigent families with
mentally disabled children.
“It’s difficult to know how much abuse there is,’’ said MIT economics
professor David Autor, who has written extensively about federal
disability programs. “But it has always been open to strategic behavior
on the part of parents.’’
The parents have denied any ulterior motives in their actions, saying they
are in despair over Rebecca’s death, which they have attributed to
pneumonia. Their defense attorneys say the parents, while struggling
with their ownemotional problems, cared enough to get
early intervention for their children. The parents, they said, were
simply following the instructions of their children’s psychiatrist, Dr.
Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center, in dispensing the drugs.
In the upcoming case - in which the mother will be tried first, followed
by the father in a separate trial - prosecutors are expected to portray
both parents as seeing Rebecca as an extra source of disability income
as early as age 2 1/2. In 2004, the child became a patient of Kifuji,
who had already been treating Rebecca’s older siblings.
Rebecca’s mother allegedly told the psychiatrist that the girl’s behavior was
erratic and disruptive, and she had trouble sleeping. Based on the
mother’s accounts, and the family’s psychiatric history, Kifuji
ultimately diagnosed Rebecca with bipolar and hyperactivity disorders,
and prescribed Depakote, Seroquel, and Clonidine, a treatment plan
similar to her siblings.
As soon as Rebecca got her first diagnosis in 2004, her father began
applying for Social Security benefits for Rebecca, and kept trying even
though he was twice rejected.
During 2005 and most of 2006, Rebecca’s mother would have numerous contacts
with Kifuji over the drugs, including how much she could give and how
to get refills. By June 2006, one of the girl’s therapists reported the
family to the Department of Social Services, now the Department of
Children and Families, saying the mother was neglectful to her
children. By November 2006, a nurse at Rebecca’s preschool reported
that the girl often seemed overmedicated, looking at times like a
“floppy doll.’’
Meanwhile, Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, disability checks
sustained the family’s finances. Both parents, who worked only sporadically,
qualified for medical and psychological reasons, while the two oldest children were on disability
primarily for psychiatric conditions. Federal officials say they cannot
divulge a family’s disability payments; however, given that the typical
monthly payment for each SSI disability recipient in Massachusetts is
$700 a month, authorities say, the Riley family could have received
about $2,800 a month or $33,600 a year.
To obtain benefits under SSI, parents must not exceed certain income
limits, and show, based on tougher standards set in 1996, that their
child’s mental condition limited his or her daily life in a marked and
severe way, among other effects.
Prosecutors say that Rebecca’s parents were so focused on these checks that they
ignored her rapidly declining health in early December 2006. On Dec.
11, she allegedly vomited in Quincy’s Social Security office, causing
the father to erupt in anger when the family had to leave the office
early. In the early morning hours of Dec. 13, she died while sleeping
on the floor next to her parents’ bed.
The government says an autopsy report found the girl died from excessive
amounts of psychiatric medications, though the defense attorneys say
their medical experts dispute the autopsy findings and the parents
could not have anticipated how quickly Rebecca’s health spiraled out of
control that day.
With opening statements in Carolyn Riley’s trial set to begin this week in
Plymouth County Superior Court in Brockton, numerous workers from the
Social Security Administration are on the witness list, as well as
relatives and friends who are expected to testify about the parents’
preoccupation with disability benefits. A judge, who reviewed grand
jury testimony, stated there is ample testimony suggesting that “the
defendants had a financial interest in having Rebecca and the other
children diagnosed with bipolar and ADHD.’’
It remains unclear just how alert Kifuji might have been to the
possibility that Rebecca’s parents might have been financially
motivated to keep their daughter on drugs, or exaggerate symptoms, for
the sake of disability benefits. The psychiatrist, who was the subject
of a grand jury probe but was not indicted, is expected to testify, her
lawyer said.
Some pediatricians and lawyers who work among low-income families say they
believe childhood disability insurance fraud for mental disorders is
rare, though they are alert to possible misrepresentations when dealing
with indigent or troubled parents. Dr. Marilyn Augustyn, who
specializes in behavioral pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, said
some low-income parents inquire after hearing about others getting
disability checks for children with hyperactivity disorder. Some have
asked, she said, “Maybe I could get SSI? My kids are active too.’’
Augustyn said that the bureaucracy of securing benefits is “a nightmare,’’ and
she believes generally only the most determined, and deserving,
families will go through all the steps.
At the time that Rebecca’s parents were applying for benefits, the nation
continued to see a soaring number of children receiving disability
benefits for mental disorders.
From 2000 to 2008, for instance, the number of children with a listed
diagnosis of mental disorder (excluding those listed under mental
retardation) rose from about 260,000 to 596,000, a 150 percent increase.
And during those same years, the mental disorder diagnosis grew faster
compared with other categories. It went from being roughly 32 percent
to 52 percent of all children receiving disability benefits.
Many child advocates say these rising numbers show the government takes
seriously the impact of mental disabilities on children and families,
and are confident that scams are only a tiny fraction of all claims.
Jonathan Lasher of the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security
Administration, said his office does not track fraud in childhood
mental disabilities, though “it is safe to say that we see many types
of feigned or exaggerated disability claims in the course of our
investigative work.’’
Dr. Eli Newberger, the former medical director of child protection at
Children’s Hospital Boston, said the only way to prevent fraud is for
the child’s clinicians to look broadly at his or her family’s life,
including economic stresses and the parents’ psychological states.
Referring to the Riley case, Newberger said, “The clinicians were
asleep at the switch.’’
It remains unclear whether Rebecca’s mother, now 35, will take the stand.
On a CBS “60 Minutes’’ show about the case in September 2007, Carolyn Riley told
Katie Couric in a jailhouse interview that she was no longer sure
Rebecca had bipolar disorder. When asked what went wrong, the mother
replied hesitantly, “I don’t know. . . . Maybe she was just hyper for
her age.’’

BROCKTON – Reimbursements for missing store
gift cards and refunds for Weymouth High School reunion tickets were
among the preoccupations of the mother of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley on
the day after the girl died.As the first-degree murder trial of Carolyn
Riley entered its second day in Plymouth Superior Court, several staff
members in the Weymouth public schools, which Rebecca’s older siblings
attended, testified they were surprised to see the children's parents
on the morning of Dec. 14, 2006 waiting inside the school to see them.
Just 24 hours earlier, their youngest daughter, Rebecca, had been
found dead lying next to her parents’ bed in what prosecutors say was
from an overdose of psychiatric medications.

“She asked if I had the receipts for the gift cards,” said Kimberly
Stetz, a former counselor at the Abigail Adams Middle School, referring
to Rebecca’s mother.Stetz said that Carolyn Riley was
referring to $200 in gift cards at Wal-mart and Stop & Shop that
Stetz had re-gifted to the Riley family after receiving them through a
local church. Stetz, who said she knew the family was poor, said the
mother reported that the gift cards were missing and sought the
original receipts to try to recoup the money from the stores.

After Stetz explained that she didn’t have the receipts, she said
the mother inquired about other sources of donations to help the family.

Another staff member at the middle school, Daniel Birolini, who was
also present during this talk with the Rileys, testified that neither
parent inquired or showed concern about their oldest 11-year-old child,
Gerard, who was a student at the school and had just been placed into
foster care after Rebecca's death.

Gary Pelletier, principal of the Ralph Talbot Elementary School,
which Rebecca’s sister attended, said Rebecca’s parents made an
unannounced visit that same day to ask if one of Pelletier’s colleagues
– who ran a reunion event for Weymouth High, which Carolyn Riley had
attended – could help them get back the $25 deposit they had given for
the occasion.

Pelletier said the mother showed almost no emotion during this
visit. He described her as having a flat demeanor, a description also
offered by numerous other witnesses in this case who observed the
mother both before and after Rebecca died.

Said Pelletier: “She appeared numb.”

Defense attorneys have depicted Carolyn Riley as a loving mother,
struggling to raise three children who were diagnosed with bipolar and
hyperactivity disorder and coping with her own emotional issues. They
dispute the state’s portrayal of both parents as seeking psychiatric
diagnoses in order for their children to qualify for federal mental
health disability benefits of about $600 a month per child.

When Rebecca died, the parents' application for her benefits had
been denied twice; however, they were appealing. Both parents and the
two other children were given federal disability benefits totaling
about $2,700 a month.

BROCKTON - The mother of 4-year-old Rebecca
Riley was depicted yesterday by a former housemate as a woman dominated
by an autocratic husband who frequently yielded to his demands,
including that she get their three children to quiet down by giving
them earlier-than-scheduled dosages of their psychotropic medications.
Kelly Williams, who used to live with the Riley family in Hull, quoted
Rebecca’s father as saying to his wife: “You got to shut them up. Go
get the medication.’’
According to Williams, this dynamic played out in the period before Dec. 13,
2006, the day Rebecca died of what prosecutors say was an overdose of
clonidine, one of the three mood-altering medications she was taking
for bipolar and hyperactivity disorders.
Williams ended what was the first full of week of testimony in the first-degree
murder trial of Carolyn Riley, Rebecca’s 35-year-old mother, in
Plymouth Superior Court.
The father, Michael Riley, faces the same charges and is being tried
separately. Prosecutors allege that the couple fabricated behavioral
issues in their children to get sedating medication for them and to
qualify for federal disability benefits.
Williams’s statements before the 16 jurors was the first detailed look at the home
environment in the days before Rebecca died. In the latter part of
2006, Williams, her 6-year-old son, and her boyfriend, James McGonnell,
who is Carolyn Riley’s half-brother, rented a Hull house with the
Rileys. Money was tight, and Michael Riley and McGonnell often feuded,
she said.
Meanwhile, prescription bottles were plentiful, and sometimes shared without
doctors’ approval. The three Riley children, ranging in age from 11 to
4, were each on three psychotropic medications, and Williams
acknowledged her son had also been on clonidine. Williams also
testified that Carolyn Riley, who was on prescription medication for
migraines, sometimes offered some of her pills to McGonnell.
Defense attorneys have contended that Carolyn Riley was a loving mother who
administered medication according to the instructions of the children’s
psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center, and that,
ultimately, the girl died of rapid-onset pneumonia.
Through tears, Williams described the catastrophic night in 2006 when Rebecca died.
Williams, who worked part time at Dunkin’ Donuts, said that Rebecca, after coping
for several days with what seemed like a bad cold, suddenly became much
more ill. Aside from vomiting and coughing, and becoming flush with
fever, the preschooler began to wander about the house, barely
responsive when her name was called and seemingly “zoned out
completely.’’
Williams said she and McGonnell kept asking Rebecca’s parents to take the girl to the
doctor. The father, however, was preoccupied with a dispute over his
disability benefits requiring visits to the Social Security office in
Quincy and kept demanding that his wife keep Rebecca quiet.
He apparently became livid when Rebecca, during one trip on Dec. 11, 2006,
vomited in the Social Security office, cutting short their visit.
Carolyn Riley insisted to Williams that she would be taking Rebecca to the
doctor, but kept putting it off even as Rebecca’s condition seemed to
worsen, Williams said. On the night before Rebecca died, when she
allegedly kept knocking on her parents’ closed bedroom door asking for
her mother, the father kept ordering the girl to go back to her own
room, Williams said.
Williams testified that she recalled that the Rileys gave Rebecca some
over-the-counter cold medication that night and that she did not see
the quantity of psychiatric drugs Rebecca was given.
Ultimately, after Rebecca kept moaning for her mother, Carolyn Riley persuaded her
husband to let the girl sleep on the floor next to their bed. The
following morning, the girl was found dead.
While Williams had testified before the grand jury that she believed
Rebecca’s condition was so serious she had nearly wanted to call an
ambulance herself, she testified yesterday that she had never thought
the girl was in a life-threatening situation. As for Rebecca dying,
Williams said, “It never crossed my mind that that would happen.’’

Wow. WTH is going on with these parents?

BROCKTON - Jurors in the first-degree murder
trial of Carolyn Riley, accused of killing her 4-year-old daughter
through a fatal overdose of psychiatric drugs, heard more yesterday
about the child’s father and how he may have influenced the atmosphere
in the home prior to the girl’s death.
A Weymouth Housing Authority manager testified that Michael Riley, 37,
had been banned since 2005 from spending overnights in the family’s
apartment there, the result of pending charges that included providing
pornography to a minor. A social worker said the father’s alleged
beating of his son in 2006 triggered a renewed child-abuse
investigation, and the mother, while remaining devoted to the father,
filed a restraining order to protect the boy. A house guest also
testified that the Rileys’ three children often seemed “more timid’’
when their father was around.
But Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center, the psychiatrist for all
three of the Riley children, portrayed the father as a positive
influence. At the request of Carolyn Riley, the doctor wrote the
Weymouth Housing Authority in early 2006, requesting that Michael Riley
be allowed to move back in. The doctor said the mother had told her
that the children’s behavioral problems may be related to his absence.
“The children do much better having the father at the home,’’
Kifuji testified this week, recalling what she wrote.
These divergent views of Michael Riley and his role in the family emerged
yesterday in a Plymouth County courtroom where the mother is being
tried. Michael Riley faces the same charges, but will be tried
separately.
The lifeless body of 4-year-old Rebecca was found next to her parents’ bed
on Dec. 13, 2006, after a week in which a coldlike illness escalated quickly
into frequent vomiting and a mental daze. Witnesses testified that the
couple, who had by then been reunited in Hull, did not heed repeated
warnings to take Rebecca to a doctor.
Based on an autopsy report that found that Rebecca had died of an overdose of
psychiatric medications, prosecutors charged both parents with
first-degree murder.
But defense attorneys for Carolyn Riley, 34, say they have medical experts
who will show that Rebecca died of rapid-onset pneumonia. They say that
the mother followed Kifuji’s recommendations in dispensing medication
to the children.
Kifuji wrapped up two days of testimony yesterday, facing questioning about
her role with the troubled family, particularly her oversight of the
mother’s dispensing of pills.
Prosecutors questioned how often she informally sanctioned or tolerated the
occasions when Carolyn Riley gave extra drugs to her children without
the doctor’s explicit approval. Each child was on several potent drugs
for bipolar and hyperactivity disorder.
The psychiatrist reiterated yesterday that she was aware that the mother
had introduced Kaitlynne - Rebecca’s sister, who is two years older -
to clonidine for the first time, after taking some pills from the
prescription bottle of her oldest son, Gerard, who is seven years older
than Rebecca.
Even when Kifuji learned of this and warned the mother against the practice, the
doctor then wrote up a prescription of clonidine for Kaitlynne. The
doctor said she listened to the mother’s explanation for why she gave
the medication, concluding, “It made sense.’’
Questioned by defense attorney Michael Bourbeau, Kifuji said that in February 2004
she had told Carolyn Riley that she could give a half-tablet of
clonidine, a sedating drug, to Kaitlynne as needed during the day “for
agitation.’’ On another occasion, she agreed that a half-tablet of
clonidine could be given for help with sleep problems, but the doctor
was not sure which Riley child she authorized the extra dosage for.
“I’m not sure if it’s Kaitlynne or Rebecca,’’ she said.
Kifuji, 55, testified this week only after the government granted her immunity
from prosecution. She had initially refused to testify on grounds that
her statements might be self-incriminating.
She had been the subject of a grand jury investigation, but last summer the
panel chose not to indict her. She stopped practicing after Rebecca’s
death, but the state licensing board authorized her to return to
practice.
She is now seeing patients at Tufts Medical Center
without any restrictions, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Kifuji still faces a medical malpractice suit filed by the estate of Rebecca Riley.

BROCKTON - A pathologist from Children’s
Hospital Boston testified yesterday that 4-year-old Rebecca Riley died
when an aggressive bacterial pneumonia moved quickly through her small
body weakened by toxic levels of sedating drugs.
When asked by First Assistant Plymouth District Attorney Frank J. Middleton
Jr. to identify what Rebecca died of, Dr. Sara Vargas said she believed
both the severe illness and medications, specifically clonidine, played
a role.
“I believe she died of acute bacterial pneumonia in a setting of toxic levels of drugs,’’
Vargas said in the first-degree murder trial of Rebecca’s mother,
Carolyn Riley.
The prosecution has charged the mother with killing her daughter by giving
her a lethal overdose of drugs and showing a “malicious failure’’ to
obtain medical attention for a severely sick child.
Vargas’s testimony, however, also at least partially backed up the defense case
that a fast-moving lung infection, one that would catch even
conscientious parents off guard, may have caused the girl’s death.
The pathologist described the child’s pneumonia as “overwhelming’’ and said
it may have started as a coldlike illness that rapidly transformed into
life-threatening pneumonia.
Vargas did indicate that clonidine played a role in the girl’s death. She said
Rebecca had toxic levels of clonidine that would have undermined her
ability to battle the bacterial infection.
She said clonidine can depress breathing and other bodily functions, exacerbating the girl’s illness.
“The more sedation, the more risk,’’ Vargas said in her testimony in the
courtroom of Plymouth County Superior Court Judge Charles Hely.
Vargas
said a review of the girl’s tissue samples showed signs of organs
damaged by excessive drug consumption, adding that Rebecca had a
potentially fatal level of clonidine in her system when she died.
Vargas’s testimony sets up a critical phase of the trial: the battle of medical specialists.
Both sides agree the child was gravely ill on the night of Dec. 12, 2006.
She was frequently vomiting, coughing, and walking about in a confused
mental state.
But they differ on the role that clonidine played in the death and the extent to
which the parents ignored their responsibility to seek urgent medical
care.
Rebecca was found dead on the morning of Dec. 13, 2006.
Defense
attorneys say that their medical experts, who are likely to take the
stand next week, will show pneumonia to be the cause of death and that
Rebecca’s parents could not have predicted its swift, deadly force.
Dr. Elizabeth Bundock of the medical examiner’s office may testify today.
According to State Police, her autopsy report found that Rebecca died of a deadly
mixture of psychiatric medications, specifically clonidine, and
chemicals found in cold medicines.
Prosecutors are expected to tell jurors that a clonidine overdose does not have to be the only cause of death.
According
to past court filings, prosecutors will argue that the 35-year-old Hull
mother can be convicted for showing “a malicious failure’’ to obtain
medical care for a very sick child.
Rebecca’s father, 37-year-old Michael Riley, also faces first-degree murder charges in her death and will be tried separately.
Before she died, Rebecca had been on clonidine, and two psychotropic drugs:
Depakote, an antiseizure drug used as a mood stabilizer, and Seroquel,
an antipsychotic drug.
She
and her two older siblings were all under the care of a child
psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center, for bipolar
and hyperactivity disorders, and were on similar drugs since the age of
2.
Prosecutors say Rebecca’s parents fabricated behavioral symptoms in the girl to obtain
drugs to sedate her and to help the family qualify for federal
disability benefits.
Before Rebecca died, both parents and Rebecca’s two older siblings had
received a total of about $2,300 a month in federal disability benefits
related to mental disorders, and the parents were applying for Rebecca
to receive an additional $600 a month in benefits.

"The prosecution has charged the mother with killing her daughter by giving
her a lethal overdose of drugs and showing a “malicious failure’’ to
obtain medical attention for a severely sick child."

And Clonidine? That can lower the blood pressure to dangerously low levels if given too much. These parents were seriously messed up.

I have an offer. All you parents out there who don't want your children, I'll take them, or I'll find someone who wants them. Just don't kill your kid. Please. There are plenty of people out there that would give anything to have a kidlet.....

I'm with you Admin.

BOSTON —

Tufts
Medical Center has reaffirmed its support for the child psychiatrist
who prescribed a potent cocktail of drugs for Rebecca Riley and
revealed that it conducted its own extensive review, which found Dr.
Kayoko Kifuji blameless in the 4-year-old’s death.
A
statement from the hospital Friday said Tufts physicians in several
specialties reviewed Kifuji’s handling of the girl’s care, and the
hospital also sought “external, independent expert evaluations.”
Afterward, administrators concluded Kifuji provided “appropriate” care
when she diagnosed the girl with bipolar and attention deficit
hyperactivity disorders, and prescribed a mix of psychotropic drugs.
Over two days on the witness stand in the murder trial of Rebecca’s
mother, Carolyn Riley, the 55-year-old psychiatrist this week defended
her line of treatment but acknowledged she relied heavily on Riley’s
descriptions of her daughter as aggressive and hyperactive in making
her diagnoses.
Testifying after being granted immunity
from criminal prosecution for what she said, Kifuji told jurors during
hours of questioning that Carolyn Riley more than once had given her
daughter stronger doses than prescribed. Kifuji continued prescribing
the drugs, even after a social worker and a school nurse called to warn
that Rebecca appeared overmedicated and pharmacists warned that Carolyn
Riley had made excuses for why her prescriptions ran out early.
“To stand by and accept this as good medicine is shocking,” said
Benjamin Novotny, an attorney with Lubin & Meyer who represents
Rebecca Riley’s estate in a malpractice lawsuit against Kifuji. “It
doesn’t say much for patient protection.”
After Rebecca’s
death in Hull in December 2006, Tufts placed Kifuji on paid leave when
the psychiatrist agreed to voluntarily suspend her medical license.
An investigation by the state Board of Registration in Medicine ended
last July when Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced
that a grand jury would not bring criminal charges against Kifuji.
Dr. Don Condie, former president of the New England Council of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry, said he was not surprised at Tufts’ stance.
Public anger at Kifuji’s medical decisions, he said, does not negate
the fact she was neither criminally charged nor found negligent by the
medical board.
“The allegations have not been proven that
she did anything wrong,” Condie, a child psychiatrist at Massachusetts
General Hospital, said. “I don’t know if she did.”
Tufts’ statement Friday did say Kifuji’s work is being reviewed by senior doctors in psychiatric specialties.

BROCKTON - A pathologist from Children’s
Hospital Boston testified Friday that 4-year-old Rebecca Riley died
when an aggressive bacterial pneumonia moved quickly through her small
body weakened by toxic levels of sedating drugs.
When asked by First Assistant Plymouth District Attorney Frank J. Middleton
Jr. to identify what Rebecca died of, Dr. Sara Vargas said she believed
both the severe illness and medications, specifically clonidine, played
a role.
“I believe she died of acute bacterial pneumonia in a setting of toxic levels of drugs,’’
Vargas said in the first-degree murder trial of Rebecca’s mother,
Carolyn Riley.
The prosecution has charged the mother with killing her daughter by giving
her a lethal overdose of drugs and showing a “malicious failure’’ to
obtain medical attention for a severely sick child.
Vargas’s testimony, however, also at least partially backed up the defense case
that a fast-moving lung infection, one that would catch even
conscientious parents off guard, may have caused the girl’s death.
The pathologist described the child’s pneumonia as “overwhelming’’ and said
it may have started as a coldlike illness that rapidly transformed into
life-threatening pneumonia.
Vargas did indicate that clonidine played a role in the girl’s death. She said
Rebecca had toxic levels of clonidine that would have undermined her
ability to battle the bacterial infection.
She said clonidine can depress breathing and other bodily functions, exacerbating the girl’s illness.
“The more sedation, the more risk,’’ Vargas said in her testimony in the
courtroom of Plymouth County Superior Court Judge Charles Hely.
Vargas said a review of the girl’s tissue samples showed signs of organs
damaged by excessive drug consumption, adding that Rebecca had a
potentially fatal level of clonidine in her system when she died.
Vargas’s testimony sets up a critical phase of the trial: the battle of medical specialists.
Both sides agree the child was gravely ill on the night of Dec. 12, 2006.
She was frequently vomiting, coughing, and walking about in a confused
mental state.
But they differ on the role that clonidine played in the death and the extent to
which the parents ignored their responsibility to seek urgent medical
care.
Rebecca was found dead on the morning of Dec. 13, 2006.
Defense attorneys say that their medical experts, who are likely to take the
stand next week, will show pneumonia to be the cause of death and that
Rebecca’s parents could not have predicted its swift, deadly force.
Dr. Elizabeth Bundock of the medical examiner’s office may testify today.
According to State Police, her autopsy report found that Rebecca died of a deadly
mixture of psychiatric medications, specifically clonidine, and
chemicals found in cold medicines.
Prosecutors are expected to tell jurors that a clonidine overdose does not have to be the only cause of death.
According to past court filings, prosecutors will argue that the 35-year-old Hull
mother can be convicted for showing “a malicious failure’’ to obtain
medical care for a very sick child.
Rebecca’s father, 37-year-old Michael Riley, also faces first-degree murder charges in her death and will be tried separately.
Before she died, Rebecca had been on clonidine, and two psychotropic drugs:
Depakote, an antiseizure drug used as a mood stabilizer, and Seroquel,
an antipsychotic drug.
She and her two older siblings were all under the care of a child
psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center, for bipolar
and hyperactivity disorders, and were on similar drugs since the age of
2.
Prosecutors say Rebecca’s parents fabricated behavioral symptoms in the girl to obtain
drugs to sedate her and to help the family qualify for federal
disability benefits.
Before Rebecca died, both parents and Rebecca’s two older siblings had
received a total of about $2,300 a month in federal disability benefits
related to mental disorders, and the parents were applying for Rebecca
to receive an additional $600 a month in benefits.

BROCKTON - Jurors are expected to start
deliberating today on whether a South Shore mother is a tragic figure
whose daughter died of a rare, aggressive illness or a heartless con
artist who used psychiatric drugs to kill her child.
“She had this little girl’s life in the palm of her hand,’’ prosecutor Frank
J. Middleton Jr. said in his closing argument yesterday. “And she
poisoned her to death.’’
But defense attorneys for Carolyn Riley, 35, described her as a kindhearted
mother who placidly followed the advice of a Boston psychiatrist when
she medicated her 4-year-old daughter, Rebecca. Attorney Michael
Bourbeau pointed to the defendant in his closing statements, saying,
“Is that a mother trying to maliciously harm her child?’’
The mother, who faces first-degree murder charges, has been an enigmatic
figure in the three weeks of the trial before Plymouth Superior Court
Judge Charles Hely.
Even
when prosecutors displayed blown-up photographs of her daughter’s body
as it was discovered - clad only in a pull-up diaper, sprawled on the
floor next to her parents’ bed and smeared with lung secretions - Riley
showed little visible emotion, or looked down.
Earlier this week, jurors watched a clip from a CBS
“60 Minutes’’ show when Katie Couric asked about her placid demeanor,
saying, “You almost seem numb.’’ Riley answered haltingly, “Yes.’’
She did not take the stand in her own defense, though jurors had a chance
to see how she presents herself when describing the days before
Rebecca’s death on Dec. 13, 2006, and her relationship with the child’s
controversial psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center.
Kifuji agreed to testify only after invoking her right against
self-incrimination and being granted immunity from prosecution.
Jurors saw videotape footage of two interviews that Riley gave, one to Couric
and another to police officers, plus audiotape interviews with police
within a day of Rebecca’s death.
Prosecutors aid the tapes, as well as other testimony, reinforces their view that
Riley fabricated behavioral symptoms in Rebecca in order to get
sedating drugs and to help the family qualify for federal disability
benefits. First Assistant District Attorney Middleton acknowledged
yesterday that Riley had to fool a psychiatrist to get such drugs, but
suggested she managed through her guileless-looking appearance to do
just that.
While testifying in this case, Kifuji acknowledged that she relied almost exclusively on
the mother’s description of her child’s behavior before making a
diagnosis and prescribing drugs. After a one-hour consultation, she
diagnosed Rebecca at age 2 as having attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, and she found her to have bipolar disorder at age 3 after the
mother complained that the child was driving her “crazy.’’
Kifuji had previously spent one hour with Rebecca’s older sister, Kaitlynne,
when she was 2, before diagnosing her with bipolar disorder and
authorizing drugs. This happened even though an early intervention
specialist who had seen Kaitlynne nearly every week since birth, and
who said she was present at that 2003 meeting, spoke out against drugs
and said the child only displayed typical toddler behavior.
But defense attorneys have said Carolyn Riley simply trusted Kifuji and saw
her out of genuine concern for her children. They also said their
medical experts say Rebecca ultimately died of rapid-onset pneumonia,
not drugs.
Bourbeau described the pneumonia as remarkably aggressive and, in explaining
Rebecca’s death, said that “the pills had no effect.’’
If convicted of first-degree murder, Riley faces a mandatory sentence of
life in prison without parole; if found guilty of involuntary
manslaughter, she faces a maximum of 20 years behind bars, prosecutors said.

BROCKTON -- Jurors deliberated for about six
hours today without reaching a verdict in the first-degree murder trial
of Carolyn Riley, a 35-year-old South Shore woman accused of killing
her 4-year-old daughter with an overdose of psychotropic drugs.
Today marked the second day jurors met behind closed doors. The
panel, which listened to three weeks of testimony in the case,
deliberated for four hours Friday afternoon before breaking for the
weekend. If jurors do not acquit her, they also have the option of
finding her guilty of lesser charges, such as second-degree murder or
manslaughter.
Plymouth County Superior Court Judge
Charles Hely instructed them Friday that if they find the mother of
Rebecca Riley guilty of first-degree murder, they must be convinced
beyond a reasonable doubt that she killed the child "by deliberate
premeditation" or with malice and with "extreme atrocity or cruelty."

Jurors also have the option a conviction of second-degree murder, in
which case they must show that the mother caused the child's death and
it was committed with malice.

The final option is a conviction of manslaughter by "wanton or
reckless conduct." According to written instruction prepared for the
jury, "wanton or reckless conduct" is conduct "involving grave risk of
substantial harm to another person,'' and the person committing this
conduct was "indifferent to or disregarded the high likelihood" of
substantial harm to the other person.

Prosecutors allege that Carolyn Riley fabricated behavioral problems
in her daughter to obtain sedating drugs from a psychiatrist and to
help the family qualify for additional federal disability benefits.

They say that several days before the child's body was found the
morning of Dec. 13, 2006, she had been sick with a respiratory illness.
However, instead of getting Rebecca medication attention, prosecutors
say, the mother ignored the child's pleas for help and gave her an
overdose of clonidine, one of three psychotropic medications that the
girl was on.

The defense has argued that Rebecca died of a rapid-onset bacterial
pneumonia, not a drug overdose, and that Rebecca's parents could not
have possibly known their child could die so quickly from this illness.

A South Shore mother was found guilty
yesterday of second-degree murder in the death of her 4-year-old
daughter, Rebecca, who went to sleep one night after being given toxic
levels of psychotropic drugs and never woke up.
Carolyn Riley, 35, showed no visible emotion when the 12-member jury returned
the verdict after 19 hours of deliberations in Plymouth Superior Court.
Riley, her upper chest displaying a “Rebecca 12-06-06’’ tattoo that
reflected her daughter’s date of death, was handcuffed as soon as the
word guilty was uttered by the jury forewoman.
Before sentencing, Judge Charles Hely permitted the reading of a letter from
Ashley Davidson, 17, Riley’s first biological daughter, who as a
toddler was removed from her mother’s care, placed in a foster home,
and eventually adopted. The teenager condemned her mother for the cruel
fate she delivered Rebecca, as well as the tormenting memories left for
her and Rebecca’s two other siblings, ages 14 and 9, now both in foster
homes.
“When I think that you are my biological mother, I sometimes wonder if it is in my blood.
Will I grow up to be a mother like you?’’ said the letter, read by her
adoptive father, Bob Davidson.
Riley, who has an additional tattoo on her arm with the name Ashley, listened and stared at the floor.
The judge sentenced her to life imprisonment, with the possibility of
parole after 15 years, the mandatory punishment for a second-degree
murder conviction. It was one of the lesser offenses that the jury of
eight women and four men was allowed to consider in this first-degree
murder case.
As officers led Riley out of the courtroom, she looked at her mother, Valerie
Berio, a constant presence in the 3 1/2-week trial who was sobbing
among the spectators. Riley quietly wept as she was taken our to be
transported to MCI-Framingham.
While Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz praised the verdict as “a
small measure of justice for Rebecca,’’ the mother’s defense lawyer,
Michael Bourbeau, said the decision, which he plans to appeal, reflects
the jury’s judgment of “what kind of a mother she was,’’ as opposed to
the evidence in the case.
He had argued to jurors that medical evidence showed that Rebecca died of
fast-acting pneumonia, not drugs, and that the mother gave medications
based on the sometimes-flexible instructions of her child’s
psychiatrist.
Riley’s husband - Michael Riley, 37 - will be tried separately on the same
charges, and his case is scheduled to go to trial next month unless
yesterday’s result leads to a plea bargain.
Rebecca’s case attracted national attention to the expanding use and potential
abuse of giving psychotropic drugs to very young children. When Rebecca
died, she and her two older siblings, Gerard and Kaitlynne Riley, were
each on three potent psychiatric medications for bipolar and
hyperactivity disorders. Each of them went on the drugs at age 2.
Prosecutors say Carolyn and Michael
Riley, Weymouth High School graduates who had been living briefly in
Hull when Rebecca died, deliberately sought the psychiatric drugs for
their three children to scam their local Social Security office into
approving disability benefits.
But behind the twists of the case is the all-too-familiar tale of a deeply
troubled, financially strapped couple whose capacity to harm their
children became catastrophically evident - to their many doctors,
psychiatrists, teachers, and social workers - only when it was too late.
The prosecutors, Frank J. Middleton Jr. and Heather Bradley, depicted
Carolyn Riley as an unusual form of child abuser, a woman who used
three sedating medications, including Depakote, Seroquel, and
clonidine, to control her energetic toddlers and induce sleep.
Remarkably, prosecutors said, Carolyn Riley managed to obtain the drugs routinely
through prescriptions from Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, a Tufts Medical Center
psychiatrist who faces a medical malpractice lawsuit in the death and
agreed to testify only after being granted immunity from prosecution.
On the night Rebecca received her fatal overdose, her father, who had been
prone to violent outbursts, became irate about the child’s pleas to be
with her mother. Rebecca had been battling a respiratory illness for
days, and that night, according to housemates, Rebecca kept trying to
enter her parents’ bedroom, moaning, “Mommy, Mommy.’’
Prosecutors said that the mother, whom they portrayed as routinely putting her
husband’s needs above her children’s, went to the pill dispensers in
their Hull home. That night, the state said, Carolyn Riley gave the
coughing and feverish child as much as twice the girl’s daily dosages
of clonidine at once, the equivalent of seven tablets of .1 milligram
each.
Rebecca’s lifeless body, clad only in a pull-up diaper with a teddy bear beneath her head,
was discovered by her mother around 6 a.m. on Dec. 13, 2006, next to
her parents’ bed.
Her defense lawyers, however, portrayed Carolyn Riley as an overwhelmed
mother deserving of sympathy, a former foster child who was doing her
best to raise a family in which the adults and children all had mental
health problems.
If the mother had some lapses, her lawyers said, they had to be viewed in
light of the difficult choices of a woman struggling with poverty and a
domineering husband.
In the year before Rebecca died, Michael Riley saw the children sporadically.
He was barred from living with the family in a Weymouth housing
development because he had been charged with trying to sexually assault
and show pornographic pictures to Ashley during one of her visits with
the family.
The father, who was convicted of only the pornography charge and served a 2 1/2-year
prison term that ended this year, remains behind bars awaiting his
trial in the death of Rebecca.
The attachment of Carolyn Riley to her husband was a recurring theme in the
lengthy trial. As the mother waited over three days for a verdict,
sitting on a bench reading a romance novel and playing games on her
cellphone, she responded readily to reporters’ questions.
When asked about the prosecutor’s argument that she and her husband wanted
only to maximize their disability benefits, the mother, who speaks with
a soft, girlish voice, disputed that point. She said that Social
Security awards more money in total to a couple who file as unmarried
singles.
But, she said that she and Michael, together for more than 15 years,
chose to remain true to their status as a wedded couple.
“We would have gotten more money if we weren’t married,’’ she said.

There are mothers who get pregnant repeatedly but can't tolerate parenthood. Some men get woman pregnant repeatedly and beat the babies to death. IMO these people are psycopaths. Serial killers/abusers. It's not about poor parenting skills or poor anger control. Constantly getting a women pregnant or getting pregnant without wanting to parent a child is a deliberate act. They enjoy creating life then destroying it. As a society we need to look at all these cases differently IMO and stop pretending all these pregnancies were an accident. Look at Ron Cummings for instance. He's fathered 3 children to 2 young girls. I'm sure he would have got Misty pregnant too before long. He was a druggie who didn't work much over the years. Now one of his children is missing. That's no accident either in my opinion. Look at Ms Riley here. She's constantly got pregnant but clearly did not want to be a parent. They're psycopaths IMO and so are the women who get pregnant all the time and have numerous abortions. Pre-natal serial killers if you ask me. Like most serial killers they eventually need more stimulation so they go through with a birth and throw the baby in the trash can the minute it's born. Then they graduate to keeping it for a while and abusing it then they murder the child.

As for this new trend in America of having toddlers on these sorts of drugs.....WTF is up with that? In this case Riley had already been judged unfit to parent her previous children. This psychotherapist did not do a thorough evaluation of Rebecca and took the psycho mothers word for it that the child needed drugs. She got away with it. She is culpable to murder IMO. I'm bloody speechless!!!!!!!

BROCKTON - Michael and Carolyn Riley are
still apparently deeply in love, relatives say, describing them as a
couple who married 16 years ago after graduating from Weymouth High
School and kept close as they struggled with mental disorders and money
woes.
But in a courtroom yesterday, prosecutors portrayed them as a murderous
couple who, on a December night in 2006, gave a fatal overdose of
psychotropic drugs to the youngest of their three children, 4-year-old
Rebecca. She was found dead the next morning on the floor next to her
parents’ bed in their Hull home.
Carolyn Riley, 35, was convicted last month of second-degree murder in the
case. Yesterday, the case that has drawn national attention focused on
Michael Riley, who is charged with first-degree murder.
During opening statements, prosecutor Frank J. Middleton Jr. portrayed the
father as a domineering, violent figure in the family who called
Rebecca “a little wench,’’ among other perverse names.
He said Michael Riley, in the weeks before Rebecca died, continually
ordered his wife to give the sedating medications to the three
children, each of whom had been diagnosed with bipolar and
hyperactivity disorders, so he could relax at home.
Sometimes, the prosecutor said, the children were medicated so they would fall asleep as early as 5 p.m.
Middleton said the 37-year-old defendant was the mastermind behind a scheme to
get all three children diagnosed with mental disorders so they would
qualify for Social Security payments.
The family’s sole income, Middleton said, was about $2,000 a month in federal disability payments.
“That is what’s driving the train - it’s all about money,’’ Middleton said to the 16 jurors.
Defense lawyer John Darrell, however, depicted the father as a man with bipolar
disorder who tried to do his best for his financially strapped family,
including trying to secure as much federal disability money as possible.
“You shouldn’t be ashamed to say, ‘I’m in hard times, I need help,’ ’’ Darrell said.
Darrell suggested the child’s tragic death on Dec. 13, 2006, was largely due to
the girl’s psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center. He
said she wrongfully prescribed three potent psychiatric drugs for
Rebecca and failed to instruct the mother on the dangers of excessive
dosages.
While saying that Carolyn Riley was the sole parent who administered the drugs to the
girl, Darrell did not directly blame the mother in the girl’s death.
“This is a family that constantly and regularly had taken care of its children,’’ Darrell said.
As the prosecutor portrayed the father as unemotional in the hours after
Rebecca’s death, Darrell said such superficial observation said nothing
about his true feelings. Yesterday, as the prosecutor showed jurors a
blown-up photograph of Rebecca’s dead body, clad only in a pull-up
diaper and with foam coming out of her mouth, Michael Riley put his
head into his hands and grimaced.
Even as they both faced first-degree murder charges and the possibility of
life imprisonment without parole, the couple has never blamed each
other in their legal defense. During Carolyn’s three-week trial before
Judge Charles Hely, her lawyers portrayed the father as a volatile
tyrant; however, they never went so far as to blame him for ordering
dangerous overdoses of medications or say that Carolyn was scared to
defy him.
The couple, both behind bars, have had limited contact since their arrest in February
2007. Michael Riley has been held at the Plymouth County House of
Correction awaiting trial. Just last fall, he finished serving a
two-year prison term for showing pornography to Rebecca’s 13-year-old
half-sister during a 2005 visit to the family’s home.
After a jury convicted Carolyn Riley of the lesser charge of second-degree
murder, following 19 hours of deliberations, she was sentenced to a
mandatory life sentence, with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
Her defense was largely that she followed Kifuji’s orders and that Rebecca
died of aggressive pneumonia, not an overdose of clonidine, one of the
three drugs that the girl was on.
Darrell said yesterday that he has not made a decision about whether to put Michael Riley on the stand.
However, if the father were to take the stand, his past criminal record - likely
to be considered relevant if he testified - could be elicited by
prosecutors.

South Shore father of three was convicted today of first-degree murder
for killing his 4-year-old daughter with an overdose of a psychotropic
drug that he and his wife had nicknamed "happy medicine."
Michael Riley, 37, faces a mandatory sentence
of life in prison without parole for the murder of his daughter
Rebecca. In a separate trial in the same case, his wife, Carolyn, 35,
was convicted Feb. 9 of second-degree murder.

The preschooler's body, clad only in a pull-up diaper, was found
lifeless on the floor next to her parents' bed during the early morning
hours of Dec. 13, 2006. Prosecutors said the girl was given a lethal
overdose of clonidine the night before when the child kept crying out
“Mommy! Mommy!" while battling a severe respiratory illness.

The jury rejected the father’s defense that he and his wife simply
followed the dosage advice of Rebecca’s child psychiatrist and that the
girl’s death was due to a fast-acting pneumonia.After the verdict, Plymouth District
Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said he believes the psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko
Kifuji, who prescribed the drugs to Rebecca, should not be allowed to
practice medicine in Massachusetts, and he will ask the Board of
Registration to reopen an investigation into her medical care.

"Dr. Kifuji is unfit to have a medical license," he said after the
verdict was announced. "If what Dr. Kifuji did in this case is the
acceptable standard of care for children in Massachusetts, then there is
something very wrong in this state."

Shortly after Rebecca died, Kifuji had entered into a voluntary
agreement with the board to halt her practice. But two years later,
after a grand jury declined to indict her and the board conducted its
own inquiry, the board last fall allowed her to return to practice. She
is currently seeing patients at Tufts Medical Center.

Cruz said he will collect all the information involving Kifuji that
surfaced during both trials -- she was called as a witness in both cases
-- and forward it to the state board in hopes they will act against the
doctor.

The case drew national attention to the use of psychotropic drugs in
young children, and the way parents can exploit the medical and social
service system designed to help indigent families.

When Rebecca died, she and her two siblings, then 11 and 6, were each
diagnosed by Kifuji with bipolar and hyperactivity disorders and put on
three mood-altering drugs.

Prosecutors said Rebecca’s parents wanted the children prescribed
psychiatric drugs so the children could be quieted down at will, and to
help them qualify for federal benefits to help low-income families with
mentally or physically disabled children. Neither of the parents
worked, and they also qualified for adult disability benefits.

While she faces a medical malpractice suit filed by the administrator
of Rebecca’s estate, Kifuji has resumed practicing at Tufts Medical
Center with no restrictions.

In closing arguments in Michael Riley’s trial, both sides lambasted
Kifuji for her careless attention to Rebecca. The father's attorney,
John Darrell, said that Kifuji “authorized every piece of that poison”
that killed Rebecca; and prosecutor Frank J. Middleton referred to her
as a “quack” and a “disgrace” to the medical profession.

Darrell declined comment after the verdict.

Michael Riley

But prosecutors emphasized to jurors that it was the parents who
actually delivered the lethal dosage of medication to Rebecca, acting as
a team devoted more to each other than to their children.

In both trials, the medical examiner and other toxicology experts
said the girl’s dead body contained a toxic level of clonidine – a
blood-pressure medication that is also used as a sedating drug for
children with hyperactivity disorder. Other medical experts did testify
that the girl also had an aggressive pneumonia at the time of her death.

Both parents, who graduated from Weymouth High School around the same
time and last lived in Hull, have alleged that they simply followed
Kifuji's instructions in dispensing medications, and that the doctor
allowed some flexibility in dosages.

They said the science of measuring clonidine in a dead body is
unreliable. Their lawyers have also argued that the girl died of a
fast-acting pneumonia, and her death could not have been anticipated by
any reasonable parent.

But the prosecutor told jurors that Michael and Carolyn Riley were
far from loving parents and instead were callous individuals who turned
to psychiatric pills to silence their children when they made
inconvenient requests.
“It’s such an outrageous case of child abuse,” Middleton said.

Before the father was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Charles Hely,
Ashley Davidson, a high school student and the half-sister of Rebecca,
delivered a victim impact statement, faulting both parents.

"Knowing I will never see Rebecca again – you don't know how much
that hurts,'' she said.

Michael Riley's conviction will automatically be reviewed by the
Supreme Judicial Court.

Years before she became a board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko
Kifuji was diagnosing children as young as 2 as bipolar and hyperactive –
and prescribing powerful cocktails of mood-altering drugs to quiet
them.
By the time Kifuji finally passed the psychiatric board exam – on her
fourth try – one of her youngest patients, Rebecca Riley, had a little
more than a year to live. Her parents murdered the 4-year-old by
overdosing her with one of the drugs Kifuji prescribed.
Both of Rebecca’s parents are in prison for her murder. Her mother,
Carolyn, was convicted in February; her father, Michael, in March.
Now the spotlight is on the controversial doctor who testified in
both trials in exchange for immunity. Kifuji and her employer, Tufts
Medical Center, face a malpractice lawsuit filed by Norwell attorney
Brian Clerkin, the court-appointed administrator for Rebecca’s estate,
which was created for the benefit Rebecca’s brother and sister, who
are now 14 and 9.
Glimpses into Kifuji’s background and treatment methods are part of a
lengthy deposition she gave in December in the civil suit. The final
pretrial hearing in the case is scheduled for June 1.
Kifuji diagnosed Rebecca Riley and her sister with mental illness and
prescribed drugs for both girls and their brother. Prosecutors in the
parents’ murder trials said the Rileys killed Rebecca because they
couldn’t get disability payments for her, as they had with their two
other kids.
According to the plaintiff’s lawyer in the malpractice suit, Benjamin
P. Novotny, of the Boston firm Lubin and Meyer, Kifuji said she
“trusted the mother” (Carolyn Riley) to tell her how the children were
behaving and reacting to the drugs. She relied almost exclusively on
what Carolyn told her about the kids when diagnosing them and ordering
increasing amounts of drugs for them.
Kifuji also trusted the mother to keep tabs on Rebecca’s heart rate
and blood pressure for signs of problems with the four drugs she was on.
Kifuji, a pediatrician who later became a psychiatrist, told Novotny
during the deposition that she didn’t realize she had a blood pressure
cuff in her office and could check the girl’s vital signs herself until
after Rebecca was dead. She said she didn’t take Rebecca’s pulse with
her fingers because Carolyn Riley told her the child’s pulse “was within
normal range.”
Kifuji also told Novotny during the deposition:
She prescribed clonidine – the drug that killed Rebecca – during the
child’s first visit to control the “impulsivity” that Carolyn Riley
described. Rebecca was 2 at the time.
She originally came to the United States from her native Japan in
1990 to research dust allergies in children. She switched her training
to psychiatry when she went to New England Medical Center in 1994.
In 2000, she took a job at Baystate Medical Services in Springfield
because it meant she wouldn’t have to return to Japan for two years and
wait for an H-1 work visa.
She diagnosed dozens of children as bipolar or having attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or both, and estimated that she
prescribed drugs for 99 percent of her pediatric patients.
She usually saw Rebecca for 20 minutes at each office visit because
she was seeing all three Riley children in an hour.
She explained that some researchers believe the area of the brain
called the amygdala is different in people with bipolar disease. But she
admitted she didn’t know where the amygdala is in the brain.
Kifuji’s medical career has taken her from Tokyo to Detroit and
Boston. She was living in Somerville as of December.
She grew up in Kumamoto, Japan, on the southwest tip of the island of
Kyushu, and graduated from Tokyo Women’s Medical College in 1981.
She’s been a permanent legal resident of the U.S. since 1990, and has
held a medical license here since 1999.
She worked at Baystate in Springfield from 2000-03. Her outpatients
there included the Rileys’ two older children, whom she also diagnosed
as bipolar with ADHD.
After Rebecca’s death in December 2006, Tufts Medical Center placed
Kifuji on paid leave after the psychiatrist agreed not to practice
medicine. The state Board of Registration in Medicine reinstated her
license this past September after Plymouth County District Attorney
Timothy Cruz announced that a grand jury would not bring criminal
charges against her.
In January, Tufts reaffirmed its support for Kifuji and her treatment
methods, saying she provided “appropriate” care to Rebecca Riley.
Kifuji began seeing patients again in the fall. As of December, she
was seeing five outpatients – four children and one adult – and working
with a state-funded child psychiatric access program.

OMG we have to do something. I can't believe anyone thinks it's ok for this woman to be anywhere near children! She should have had her license revoked and be in jail IMO. If Tufts think what she did was ok then they need to be investigated too. Who can we write to about this please? Do you have a child's commissioner or something? We have one - they are like an Ombudsman for children and we also have a Minister for children in Parliament. What childrens health departments do you have we can write too? Oprah Winfrey, LK? I don't know what to do but we've got to do something!

Kiwi:
The Massachusetts Medical Board would oversee her license.
Here's the link to the page for Physician Complaints:

http://www.massmedboard.org/consumer/complaint.shtm

Thanks Tom I doubt that I can make an official complaint but I'll make some noise and see what happens.

A four-and-a-half year-old child is discovered dead one morning on
the floor at the foot of her parents’ bed. Despite the fact that she
had apparently been ailing for a few days, neither parent made any
effort to seek medical assistance.
Did Rebecca Riley die a natural death from pneumonia, and were her
parents justified in not realizing the gravity of her condition? Or was
the main cause of Rebecca’s death the fact that Michael and Carolyn
Riley had been purposely over-medicating the child for most of her short
life?
Those are the questions at the heart of this trial from southeastern
Massachusetts, where 37-year-old Michael Riley stands trial for his
daughter’s murder. Coverage of MA v. Riley begins Tuesday on In Session.