Doctor won't face criminal charges in Rebecca Riley case, DA says

By Patricia Wen
Globe Staff

The child psychiatrist of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley, who died of an overdose of psychiatric drugs, will not be criminally prosecuted in the girl's death, clearing one of several legal hurdles that the doctor faces in connection to the child's death.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz today announced that a grand jury has declined to indict Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center. Kifuji had treated the Hull girl for bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder since she was 2. When the girl died on Dec. 13, 2006, she was taking three psychotropic medications.

While Rebecca's death cast a harsh spotlight on Kifuji and renewed calls for tighter restrictions on psychiatric drugs for children, Kifuji's lawyers have asserted that she was a compassionate clinician who ordered safe dosages of all medications. Kifuji has said it was the girl's parents who killed their child by dispensing the fatal levels of drugs. Michael and Carolyn Riley face murder charges for what prosecutors say was a pattern of over-medicating their daughter in an effort to sedate her.

Soon after Rebecca died, the Board of Registration in Medicine began an investigation, and Kifuji voluntarily suspended her practice.

"The next step for her will be the reinstatement of her license to practice medicine," said her lawyer, Bruce Singal of Boston, today.

Kifuji also faces a medical malpractice suit filed by the administrator of the girl's estate. In that case, Kifuji is accused, among other things, of poor oversight of the girl's medications and ignoring reports from Rebecca's school that she often seemed overly drugged and too tired.