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Rilya's caseworker charged, jailed
©Associated Press
October 18, 2002
MIAMI -- The social worker who was assigned to monitor Rilya Wilson, a foster child missing for 15 months before her disappearance was reported to police, was arrested Thursday on charges of official misconduct and theft.
Deborah Muskelly turned herself in to state law enforcement agents and was charged with 21 counts of official misconduct, 11 counts of grand theft and nine counts of petty theft.
Official misconduct and grand theft are third-degree felonies, which carry a maximum sentence of five years for each count.
Muskelly remained in the Miami-Dade County jail Thursday evening on $20,000 bail but was expected to post bond, law enforcement agents said. She will have an arraignment in 21 days.
Muskelly is charged with working as a substitute and adult education teacher at the same time she claimed she was working for the Department of Children and Families, said Ed Griffith, spokesman for Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office. The fraudulent time cards were filed from January 2000 to February 2002, investigators said.
Tony Pineda, special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the arrest does not help the search for Rilya.
Muskelly resigned from DCF under pressure from an unrelated case in March. She was terminated from Miami-Dade County's school district two months later.
Muskelly's attorney, George T. Pallas, said the charges stem from a civil dispute about money.
He said DCF withheld about $3,500 from Muskelly's last paycheck to compensate for wages they believed she had not earned.
"It's a pathetic attempt to distract the public's attention from law enforcement's failure to solve the disappearance of a little girl," Pallas said.
Muskelly made the last of what were supposed to be monthly visits to Rilya in January 2001. She later filed false reports on the girl's well-being.
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