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Prosecutor: 'sinister' motives pushed Hull parents to overmedicate daughter
(AP Photo/family photo via Valerie Berio)
Rebecca Riley, 4, died on Dec. 13 of a prescription drug overdose.
By Maria Cramer and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
BROCKTON -- A prosecutor said today in court that investigators believe that a Hull couple fabricated their 4-year-old daughter's symptoms in order to get more money from the government.
Frank Middleton, a Plymouth County assistant district attorney, said that Michael and Carolyn Riley were rejected twice for Supplemental Security Income after government doctors examined Rebecca and found no indication she suffered bipolar disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
"The grand jury investigation discovered a much more sinister aspect" to this case, Middleton said.
The couple pleaded not guilty today in Brockton Superior Court to first-degree murder and were ordered held without bail.
Michael C. Bourbeau, an attorney for Carolyn Riley, blamed Rebecca's death on pharmaceutical companies and the child's psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts-New England Medical Center.
"It is easy pickings" to blame Rebecca's death on her parents, Bourbeau said. "Dr. Kifuji is the cause of any overdose."
Rebecca Riley was found dead in her parents' bedroom in Hull Dec. 13, and prosecutors alleged that the couple ignored their child's obvious medical distress for several days before she died.
On March 6, the couple pleaded not guilty to the charges in Hingham District Court. They were formally indicted later in the month and their case was moved to Brockton Superior Court.
Defense lawyers for the couple have rebutted allegations that they obtained an excessive amount of drugs to poison Rebecca. The defense lawyers have said that Rebecca should have never been prescribed the medications, which have not been tested by the federal government for psychiatric use in children. The law does not stop doctors from prescribing the drugs to children, however, if they do so safely based on their medical judgment.
Kifuji diagnosed Rebecca in May 2005 with bipolar disorder. She had previously also been diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. She prescribed her to take 750 milligrams a day of Depakote, an antiseizure drug also used as a mood-stabilizer; 200 milligrams a day of Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug; and .35 milligrams a day of clonidine, a blood pressure drug also used as a sedative.
Kifuji has voluntarily stopped practicing medicine during the criminal probe and while the Board of Registration in Medicine conducts its own investigation.
The couple's surviving children, ages 6 and 11, remain in foster care in the custody of the Department of Social Services. The Rileys were ordered today to be held without bail.
Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
