State: Governor's Rilya quip criticized

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush told a delegation of Panhandle lawmakers during a meeting this week that he had "some juicy details" about the sexual orientation of the caregivers of a missing Miami girl.

Bush implied during the Wednesday meeting in the Capitol that Geralyn and Pamela Graham, who had just been charged in Miami with fraud stemming from the investigation into Rilya Wilson's disappearance, were lesbians.

"As (Pamela) was being arrested, she told her co-workers, "Tell my wife I've been arrested.' The wife is the "grandmother,' and the aunt is the husband," Bush explained, forming his fingers to indicate quotation marks around "grandmother."

"Bet you don't get that in Pensacola," Bush told his guests in the governor's office.

The Grahams, who claim to be half sisters, were charged Wednesday with stealing more than $14,000 in public assistance before and after Rilya vanished. Two of Geralyn's children also were arrested.

They have not been charged in the disappearance of Rilya, who was missing for 15 months before the state Department of Children and Families realized in April that she was gone. She would have turned 6 on Sunday.

Joshua Fisher, Pamela Graham's attorney, called the governor's comments "outrageous" and "disgusting."

"He's making jokes when there is still a missing baby here, or doesn't he care?" Fisher said Thursday.

Bush made his remarks to three Republican Panhandle legislators, two GOP state House candidates and aides. He did not realize a reporter with Gannett Regional Newspapers of Florida accompanied the group. His comments were first reported in the Pensacola News-Journal.

After speaking at a political event in Lakeland on Thursday, Bush said: "That was a private meeting that became public because the reporter was in it without my knowledge. I meant no offense. I was repeating what was told to me and that was it. I think I'll leave it at that."

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, the state's largest gay and lesbian advocacy group, called the comments "childish" and "locker room homophobia."

"It's not the kind of comment you want to hear from the highest elected official in the state," Smith said. She said Bush should apologize.

Bush made the comments after he read an e-mail from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement handed him by an aide.

"It was a nonevent," said Dave Murzin, the GOP nominee in state House District 2. "It wasn't any big deal to us. Really, all of us were there for more important stuff."

Democrats were quick to jump on the governor.

"I think Floridians would be concerned that Jeb Bush has a different message behind closed doors than what he does in public," said Tony Welch, a spokesman for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill McBride. "I think that's a cause for concern."

In Miami on Thursday, a defense attorney accused police of using the former caregivers as scapegoats for an investigation that has failed to solve the mystery of Rilya's disappearance.

The women say Rilya was taken from their home by a woman who claimed to be a DCF worker in January 2001. DCF, which says it has no record of such a visit, didn't know she was missing for 15 months because a caseworker hadn't been making required monthly visits.

Investigators said they hoped the arrests and relatively high bails would pressure the women to cough up fresh information about Rilya.

"The State Attorney's Office unabashedly announced the purpose of this bail is to squeeze her for information, information she doesn't have," said Ed Shohat, Geralyn Graham's attorney. "This is all about the homicide investigation."

Joshua Fisher, Pamela Graham's attorney, said during a bail hearing, "All they want to do is question them about a case that they know nothing about."

Circuit Judge Gerald Klein refused Thursday to lower the bails set at $600,000 for Geralyn Graham and $140,000 for Pamela Graham, who were kept in separate jails.

-- Times staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report.

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