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Carolyn Riley gets life sentence for daughter’s death

By Ed Baker - Wickedlocal.com

February 10, 2010

Weymouth - Carolyn Riley will spend the rest of her life in prison with the possibility of parole after a Plymouth County Superior Court jury convicted her on Feb. 9 of second-degree murder in the death of her four-year-old daughter Rebecca in December, 2006.

Judge Charles Hely sentenced Carolyn Riley after Robert Davidson, who is the adoptive father of Rebecca Riley’s 17-year-old sister, offered a victim impact statement.

“Rebecca was my sister,” said Davidson as he read his adoptive daughter’s statement. “I was only a freshman in high school when she died. I was devastated to hear of her death. My biological mother let her die. My mother. It is so hard going through life ‘normally’ knowing what she did to Rebecca. Knowing what could have happened to (Rebecca’s siblings) and even to me if I hadn’t been taken away. Knowing what she did to my sister has made every day a challenge – just to get up every morning. Knowing I will never see Rebecca again – you don’t know how much that hurts. The only good thing about that is that because of Rebecca’s death, (Rebecca’s siblings) were taken from the horrible environment in which they were being raised.”

Hely pronounced the life imprisonment term on Carolyn Riley after Davidson read the statement.

She showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

Court officers placed handcuffs on Carolyn Riley after the jurors said yes when Hely asked them if they unanimously agreed with the verdict.

“Today was a small measure of justice,” said Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz shortly after the jury rendered its verdict. “It’s a tragic case.”

He praised the efforts by prosecutors Frank Middleton and Heather Bradley and police, who pieced together the evidence that led to Carolyn Riley’s conviction.

Prosecutors sought to have Carolyn Riley convicted of first-degree murder.

Cruz said that the jury took much time to weigh the testimony that included 1,000 pages of medical records and testimony offered by defense expert witnesses before the second-degree conviction was rendered.

State law permits Carolyn Riley to seek parole after 15 years and appeal her sentence.

Prosecutors accused Carolyn Riley of deliberately causing Rebecca to die from an overdose of Clonidine, which is prescribed for attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and Depakote, which is administered for bipolar disorders.

Rebecca’s father, Michael Riley, has also been charged with first-degree murder in connection with his daughter’s death and is scheduled to go on trial on March 8.

He is serving a two and a half year jail term for giving pornography to a minor in an unrelated case.

Court officers led Carolyn Riley from the courtroom to a holding cell where she met briefly with her attorneys, Michael Bourbeau and Victoria Bonilla.

Carolyn Riley’s mother Valerie Berio shed tears as her daughter left the courtroom.

“I prayed for three years for this to be over and never thought it would go so wrong with a verdict like this,” Berio said.

Bourbeau said that Riley was devastated that the jurors could believe she was responsible for Rebecca’s death.

“She was always hopeful (about an acquittal),” Bourbeau said.

Carolyn Riley’s attorneys maintained that Rebecca died of a fast developing case of pneumonia, and they administered the medications to their daughter under the instructions of her psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Kifuji diagnosed Rebecca with the behavior disoders when she was two and prescribed Clonidine for ADHD and Depakote for the bipolar condition.

A pathologist, Dr. Jonathan Arden, who testified in Carolyn Riley’s defense, stated on Feb. 3 that Rebecca died of pneumonia and not from a deliberate overdose of behavioral prescription drugs.

Arden was the first witness who stated that pneumonia was responsible for Rebecca’s death.

He suggested that Massachusetts’s medical examiners committed an error by not pursuing further lung and blood cultures on Rebecca after she died.

Arden also told jurors that “Clonidine is rarely fatal,” and since sections of dead tissue in Rebecca’s lungs suggested a “necrotizing,” pneumonia and bronchitis had caused her death.

He said that an infection would explain why Rebecca had a fever and incessant coughing in her final days.

Prosecutors responded to Arden’s testimony by portraying him as a professional witness-for-hire.

Prosecutors said that Carolyn Riley intentionally caused Rebecca to die from an overdose of Clonidine and Depakote as part of an elaborate scheme to collect Social Security disability payments.

Assistant District Attorney Middleton said that Carolyn Riley needed to keep Rebecca on the behavioral medications so she could get Social Security Insurance payments for her in addition to the SSI payments she was receiving for her two older children who were diagnosed with mental disorders.

Prosecutors also alleged that Rebecca had potentially lethal amounts of Clonidine in her system, and her parents never called their pediatrician as the girl became sicker and sicker.

Dr. George Behonick, the former director of the state’s toxicology lab, said on Jan. 27 that Rebecca had three times the maximum level of Clonidine in her body when she died.

The jury began to deliberate Carolyn Riley’s fate on Feb. 5.

They met for seven hours on Feb. 8 and reconvened on Feb. 9 to deliberate before coming back with a verdict shortly after 4 p.m.

Material from GateHouse News Service was used in this story.

Rebecca Riley (April 11, 2002 – December 13, 2006), the daughter of Michael and Carolyn Riley and resident of Hull, Massachusetts, was found dead in her home after prolonged exposure to various medications, her lungs filled with fluid.

The medical examiner's office determined the girl died from "intoxication due to the combined effects" of the drugs Clonidine, valproic acid (Depakote), Dextromethorphan, and Chlorpheniramine and that her heart and lungs were damaged due to prolonged abuse of these prescription drugs.

Police reports state she was taking 750 milligrams a day of Depakote, 200 milligrams a day of Seroquel, and .35 milligrams a day of Clonidine. Rebecca had been taking the drugs since the age of two for bipolar disorder and ADHD, diagnosed by psychiatrist Kayoko Kifuji of the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

Family

Michael and Carolyn Riley were taken into police custody on February 6, 2007 for Rebecca’s death and charged with first degree murder. Their two other children, who were also on a number of prescription medications, have been moved to foster homes and the Department of Social Services reports the parents have a history of being abusive and neglectful.

On February 9, 2010, Carolyn Riley was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of her daughter and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years. Michael's trial began on March 8, 2010.

On September 27, 2010, Michael Riley was found guilty of first degree murder and received the automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Wikipedia.org

What Killed Rebecca Riley?

CBS News

February 11, 2009

On Dec. 13, 2006, police responded to a 911 call and found a little girl lying dead on the floor next to her parents' bed. The autopsy revealed that she had died from an overdose of psychiatric drugs. Rebecca Riley was being treated for bipolar disorder, or manic depression, even though she was just four years old.

If that sounds unusual to you, it's not. As Katie Couric reports, until recently the disorder was believed to emerge only in adults. Now, it is estimated that there are nearly one million children diagnosed as bipolar, making it more common than autism and diabetes combined. And to treat it, doctors are administering some medications that have yet to be approved for children. In the case of Rebecca Riley, that cocktail of medications proved fatal and now her parents have been charged with her murder.

*****

Carolyn Riley is now in jail in Boston awaiting trial and is being medicated for depression. She told 60 Minutes her daughter's problems began when Rebecca was only two years old. Carolyn took her to a psychiatrist because she had difficulty sleeping and seemed hyperactive.

"Constantly getting into things, running around, not being able to settle down," Riley remembers.

"Did you ever think, 'Well, she's two and a half years old.' There's this thing called the terrible 2's. Did you think this could, in fact, be normal?" Couric asks.

"Yes," Riley tells Couric. "The psychiatrist said that she thought that it was more than just normal."

The toddler who could barely speak in full sentences was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after several sessions over eight months. She had just turned 3. And she wasn't the only one in the family: her ten-year-old brother and four-year-old sister were already being treated for the same illness by the same doctor at Tufts-New England Medical Center. Rebecca was eventually prescribed three medications to stabilize her mood: Seroquel, an anti psychotic; Depakote, an anti seizure drug; and Clonidine, a blood pressure medication -- medications that would ultimately prove fatal on Dec. 13th.

Riley says she thought Rebecca had just a little bit of a cold and gave her daughter "Children's Tylenol Plus Cough & Runny Nose."

In the middle of the night, Riley remembers her daughter didn't want to go to sleep. "So I brought her in the room. She was right beside me on the floor. And I laid down and went to sleep," she recalls.

Before she put her to bed that night, next to her on the floor, Riley says she gave her daughter half a Clonidine.

Asked why, Riley tells Couric, "Because she hadn't been able to get to sleep since six o'clock."

"Then what happened?" Couric asks.

"Then I woke up to the alarm in the morning. And knelt down to wake her up. And there was no waking her up," Riley replies.

Riley says she knew at that point that her daughter had died. Carolyn Riley and her husband Michael were charged with first-degree murder.

The prosecutor alleged at their arraignment in February that they were overdosing Rebecca by repeatedly giving her more medication than she was prescribed. "It was used on Rebecca, her sister and her brother for one simple purpose by these defendants: to knock them out and make them sleep," the prosecutor claimed.

But the Rileys claim that they were following doctor's orders. 60 Minutes wanted to talk to the psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, but she declined. Instead 60 Minutes got a statement from her hospital: "The care we provided was appropriate and within responsible professional standards."

60 Minutes did obtain a copy of Rebecca's medical records. In them, Dr. Kifuji notes Rebecca's increased risk of mental illness because of her family history. She diagnosed Rebecca after Carolyn said her daughter was - quote - "driving me crazy" and her mood switches within a minute. She would eventually prescribe the preschooler more than ten pills a day.

Riley says she did feel that that was a lot of pills for a little girl, but she says she went ahead and gave Rebecca the prescriptions. "I trusted the doctor," she says.

Dr. Kifuji has stopped practicing, pending a ruling by the state medical board. But her lawyer has said she was just practicing mainstream psychiatry. It's now estimated that nearly one million children like Rebecca Riley have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, or manic depression. And while some psychiatrists told 60 Minutes that early diagnosis is saving lives, a growing number of doctors say it is being over-diagnosed.

60 Minutes went to talk to one of the leading proponents of the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and whose research Dr. Kifuji has said influenced her. He is Dr. Joseph Biederman, professor at Harvard and head of child psychopharmacology at Mass General Hospital.

"Previous studies that were conducted in the '70s and '80s determined it was very, very rare for a child to have bipolar disorder. And now you're saying up to a million children are running around with this," Couric remarks. "Why such a sea change?"

"The idea is rare if you define it in very strict ways," Dr. Biederman explains. "Our contribution has been to describe the many ways that this condition may emerge in children that may make it a little bit more diagnosable and less rare than people have thought about it."

The classic adult definition for manic depression or bipolar disorder is dramatic mood swings from severe highs to severe lows, which can last for weeks or months. Dr. Biederman's definition for children, though, is much broader. It emphasizes extreme irritability and at least four other symptoms such as recklessness, sleeplessness and hyperactivity. And while most doctors now believe that a child can be bipolar, there is no definitive medical test.

Now there's a cottage industry of bestselling books, magazine covers and Internet sites where you can test your child online. But even the top researchers can not agree on exactly what bipolar disorder looks like in children or at what age it can be diagnosed.

"The average age of onset is about four," Biederman says. "It's solidly in the preschool years."

"What about those who say, 'Oh, come on Dr. Biederman, a preschooler displaying these characteristics is often acting like a preschooler,'" Couric asks.

"Absolutely not," Biederman says. "The bar to consider a diagnosis in a very young child is very high."

Asked if he worries that his work is being used or applied too broadly and that too many children are being diagnosed as a result, Biederman tells Couric, "I am not so concerned if a practitioner recognizes that the symptoms have to be severe, debilitating, devastating, to consider the diagnosis."

Rhys Hampton was three years old when he began to have violent and explosive outbursts. After a year of treatment, his mother, Diana, says a psychiatrist told her he thought Rhys was bipolar.

"Would you describe his behavior as behavior that is extraordinary, severe, dangerous, and effects every, single aspect of his life?" Couric asks.

"Yeah. Every single aspect of his life," Hampton says.

"Bipolar disorder is also described as manic depression. Did he ever get depressed? Did he ever get sad?" Couric asks.

"He would tell us, you know, 'You don't love me.' 'You don't like me.' 'I don't like myself.' 'I hate myself.' 'I'm stupid.' 'Nobody likes me.' 'I wanna die.' Four-year-olds don't talk like that," Hampton says.

After Rhys' psychiatrist suggested a fourth medication, the Hamptons said "Enough."

They took their son to Seattle Children's Hospital, where they were told Rhys wasn't bipolar. He now takes medication for hyperactivity and a sleep disorder. And he's learning to deal with his explosive moods through a behavioral program.

"I mean, there's no comparison to the child that we're parenting today, as opposed to the one that we had last year," Hampton says.

Dr. John McClellan, who's familiar with Rhys' case, says the children's psychiatric hospital he runs in Washington state is filled with kids who have been misdiagnosed as bipolar. He says it has become a catchall for aggressive and troubled children.

"I think it's a problem to label kids with a major adult psychiatric disorder when they're five years old or when they're three years old," Dr. McClellan says. "Little kids are not adults. And little kids do things that if an adult did them, it would be evidence of a mental health problem."

"Having said that, if someone is bipolar and it presents later in life, doesn't it make sense that these issues exist really from birth?" Couric asks.

"No, that does make sense," McClellan says. "The problem is symptoms like irritability or recklessness or high energy when you're an eight-year-old don't necessarily predict in the long run developing bipolar disorder. Some might. Do you expose all those kids to medications to prevent the one kid that's going to get it?"

"Not that I don't use medicines, I do but the average kid comes into my hospital now on four different medicines. We had one kid that was recently admitted to our in-patient program that was on 12 psychotropic agents. At some level, there needs to be something else that's used besides just continuing to add medication after medication," McClellan says.

Dr. McClellan says we don't really know how these drugs interact or effect developing brains because most are being used off-label, which means they haven't been approved by the FDA for use in children.

"Does it disturb you or worry you that many of these medications, most of these medications are being used off-label, and have not been tested in children?" Couric asks Biederman.

"Yes. I recognize the fact that we have a gap in knowledge," Biederman says. "But the patients that come to me, and the families in tears and despair with these type of problems, I in good faith cannot tell them, 'Come back in ten years until we have all the data in hand.' I still need to use medicines that I am assuming that if they work in adults, with appropriate care and supervision, may also work in children."

Many parents told 60 Minutes their children are so out of control and disruptive, medication is the only option. A parent who took her children to Biederman's Mass General clinic, Maria Lamb says she depends on medication for eight-year-old Annie and nine-year-old Casey, who his mother says would rage for hours when he was just two years old. Casey was recently admitted to a psychiatric hospital when he was taken off one of his medications.

"I don't think they would be able to function. I wish they could. It was a last resort, seeing the kind of rages they would have, destroying their room, kicking the door off the hinges," Lamb says.

But during one recent visit, Maria's worried that Annie is eating incessantly. Dr. Biederman's partner Dr. Janet Wozniak says it could be a side effect from one of Annie's three medications and suggests another medicine may help.

"Actually its most common usage has been to help people with alcohol addictions resist alcohol. But it seems to also have an effect on food cravings," Dr. Wozniak remarked.

One of the biggest problems with these medications is side effects, including major weight gain, hand tremors, shakes, drooling and muscle spasms. And side effects are at the heart of the Rebecca Riley case.

Carolyn Riley tells Couric she never observed any sluggish or lethargic behavior in her daughter.

"This is what her preschool teacher said. She was like a floppy doll. So tired, she had to be helped off the bus. She had a tremor and had to go to the bathroom almost constantly. So how could she have these side effects at school, and yet, you never observed them at home?" Couric asks.

"I don't know," Riley replies. "She never acted like that at home at all."

But the prosecutor is charging the Rileys with murder because, he says, they ignored the warning signs and instead just kept giving Rebecca more pills than she was prescribed, even in the last few days of her life. And key to the case: 200 additional pills Carolyn Riley got from the pharmacy. She insists she was only replacing pills that were lost or damaged.

"For those who see you as somebody, who just wanted her kids to be less annoying and bothersome, who gave them too many pills because she couldn't deal with it, you would say?" Couric asks.

"I don't know. They weren't annoying. They were my life," she says.

"According to the medical examiner, her heart and lungs were damaged, and this was due to prolonged abuse of these prescription drugs, rather than one incident. Prolonged abuse of these prescription drugs," Couric remarks.

"Yes. And the doctor had Rebecca on .35 milligrams, daily, for months. And I didn't know anything about dosages. How much was fatal," Riley says.

The medical examiner ruled that Rebecca died of a drug overdose from a mix of medications. And that the amount of Clonidine alone would have been fatal.

Today, awaiting trial, Carolyn Riley says she now knows more about bipolar disorder than she ever did when her daughter was alive.

Asked if she thinks Rebecca was really bipolar, Riley says, "Probably not."

"What do you think was wrong with her, now?" Couric asks.

"I don't know," she says. "Maybe she was just hyper for her age."

Produced By Kyra Darnton

Hull pair charged with giving daughter deliberate overdose of prescription pills

By Dennis Tatz and Sue Reinert - The Patriot Ledger

February 7, 2007

In a case that defies comprehension, a husband and wife from Hull appeared in court today on charges of killing their 4-year-old daughter with a deliberate drug overdose.

Police said Michael Riley, 34, who was awaiting trial for attempted child rape, and Carolyn Riley, 32, gave their daughter, Rebecca Jeanne, a fatal dose of prescription pills on Dec. 13.

In an affidavit filed with the court, State Police Trooper Anna Brookes said there was evidence of a "slow and painful killing of Rebecca Riley over a period of days."

Brookes said the Rileys refused to accept help from agencies that had identified problems with the way Rebecca was being given medicine.

The affidavit said the couple was indifferent to her "obvious pain and suffering," and failed "to provide any medical care to their own daughter as she lay visibly suffering, drowning in her own bodily fluids on the floor beside their bed."

The state medical examiner's office said the girl died from the combined effects of three drugs used to treat bipolar disorder, including Clonidine, and two over-the-counter cold medicines.

"This occurred as a result of the intentional overdose of Rebecca with Clonidine," the Plymouth County District Attorney's office said in a statement announcing the charges.

The Clonidine was prescribed by Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, Tufts New England Medical Center psychiatrist, to treat the young girl for hyperactivity and bipolar disorder. The other two drugs were Depakote and Seroquel, which are also used to treat bipolar disorder.

Authorities said the girl was diagnosed with both disorders when she was 28 months old.

James McGonnell, Carolyn Riley's half brother, and his fiancee, Kelly Williams, who lived with the family, told police they had repeatedly asked the Rileys to take Rebecca to the hospital or to a pediatrician.

They said the Rileys told them they has made an appointment, but only offered excuses for not going. They said Michael Riley told his wife to medicate the children when he determined that they were acting up.

The state Department of Social Services placed the Rileys' two other children, Gerard, 11, and Kaitlynne, 6, in foster care about 10 hours after Rebecca's death.

"There were mitigating circumstances," department spokesman Denise Monteiro said yesterday. "We had to take custody of the children. I can't say any more."

Carolyn Riley obtained a restraining order against her husband in October, but allowed it to lapse after a few weeks.

McGonnell and Williams told police they saw Michael Riley grab his son by the neck and bang his head against the back window of a pickup truck "in an apparent uncontrollable rage," the affidavit said.

McGonnell said Riley was not allowed to live with his family in Weymouth public housing because of a court order issued after he was arrested on the sex charges in 2005.

Police were called to the Rileys' home at 70 Lynn Ave. in Hull's Kenberma neighborhood, opposite Nantasket Beach, at 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 13. They found found Rebecca dead on the floor of her parents' bedroom.

An obituary prepared by the couple and published in The Patriot Ledger said the little girl had died in her sleep.

The Rileys will be arraigned today in Hingham District Court on charges of first-degree murder.

The couple was arrested yesterday at Michael Riley's mother's home on Fallgren Lane in Weymouth. He was held overnight at the Plymouth County jail and Carolyn Riley was held at the Marshfield police lockup.

Michael Riley was indicted in September 2005 on charges of attempted rape of a girl under 14, four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child and giving pornography to a child.

Weymouth Police Lt. George Greenwood said Riley was arrested in June 2005 after police searched his apartment at 43 Memorial Drive in Weymouth and confiscated a computer, diaries and notebooks.

He was scheduled for trial on May 29 in Norfolk Superior Court.

He was free on $2,500 bail posted by his wife.

Court records show Riley has a bullet hole and the letters "RRR" tattooed on his back.

Michael Riley graduated from Weymouth High School in 1991 and his wife, the former Carolyn DiSalvo, graduated in 1992.

On Dec. 30, two weeks after their daughter's death, they attended his 15th high school reunion at the Weymouth Elks Club. Michael Riley told a friend he and his wife needed to get out so they would stop thinking about Rebecca.

Hull Police Chief Richard Billings praised State Police Sgt. Scott Warmington, State Police Detective Anna Brookes and Hull Police Detective John Coggins for their investigation that led to the arrests.

A neighbor, Phyllis Lipton, said Carolyn Riley, her three children, Carolyn's stepbrother, his girlfriend and their son, moved into a home at 70 Lynn Ave. in mid-November.

Lipton, 51, said the family told her Carolyn's husband, Michael, wouldn't be living with them although he appeared to be there all the time.

"They moved in during the middle of the night," Lipton said. "All I could hear was foul language coming from the house."

Lipton said either Carolyn's stepbrother or his girlfriend told her that Rebecca had a twin who died at age of 2 weeks.

Lipton rarely saw the children, she said, but added Gerard Riley once returned hedge clippers he had taken without asking.

"He had obviously gone into my shed to get them," she said. "He said his cousin was the one who got them from the shed."

Lipton said when she heard someone had died in the Riley home her first thought was that Michael Riley had killed his wife.

"No one knew there was a child sick in the house," she said. "We thought they had moved out."

Lipton said the Rileys left about two weeks after their daughter's death. Carolyn Riley's stepbrother and his family followed a few weeks later.

Lipton said all three Riley children had special needs.

Rebecca attended the Elden H. Johnson Early Childhood Center in North Weymouth. The school provides full- and part-day classes for children ages 3 to 5. The center's principal, Victoria Silberstein, declined to comment.

Michael Riley's mother, Kathleen Riley, would not comment on the case when a reporter arrived at her home last night.

Hull parents arrested in girl’s poisoning death

By David Abel - The Boston Globe

February 6, 2007

The parents of a 4-year-old girl from Hull were arrested yesterday on murder charges after investigators concluded they poisoned their daughter, prosecutors said.

Michael Riley , 34, and his wife, Carolyn, 32, were taken into custody at his mother’s house in Weymouth in the death of their daughter Rebecca in December, said officials in the Plymouth district attorney’s office.

Just after 6:30 a.m. on Dec. 13, Hull police responded to a call for an unresponsive girl at the family’s home on Lynn Avenue, prosecutors said. They found Rebecca dead on her parents’ bedroom floor.

An investigation by State Police and Hull police found the girl had been prescribed the drugs clonidine for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and valproic acid and Seroquel for bipolar disorder. A psychiatrist had diagnosed her with both disorders at age 2 1/2, prosecutors said.

The medical examiner’s office determined the girl died from “intoxication due to the combined effects” of the drugs clonidine, valproic acid (Depakote), dextromethorphan, and chlorpheniramine, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

“This occurred as a result of the intentional overdose of Rebecca with clonidine,” the statement said. “The manner of death was determined to be homicide….”

Denise Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services, said the department “found evidence for neglect” of Rebecca.

On Dec. 13, the agency removed the couple’s other children, a 6-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, from the home, Monteiro said. They remain in foster homes.

In 2005, DSS began investigating allegations that Michael Riley sexually abused a 13-year-old girl,…identified…as Carolyn Riley’s daughter from another relationship. The girl had been adopted to another home in 2002.

Also in 2005, DSS launched an investigation into whether Carolyn Riley had neglected her children, Monteiro said.

“We supported the allegations of abuse, and we forwarded that report to the Norfolk district attorney’s office,” she said. “We also supported the allegations of neglect against the mother.”