Judge Calls Fla. Child Officials 'Despicable'

May 6 -- A Florida judge today blasted the performance of state child welfare officials as "despicable" in the case of a 5-year-old girl who has been missing since January 2001.

At a hearing in Miami, Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman had harsh words for the caseworker who was assigned to monitor the case of Rilya Wilson.

"Aside from everything else, she misrepresented the child'swell-being to this court," Lederman said, in discussing reports a caseworker Deborah Muskelly made to the judge last year.

"It is absolutely despicable what happened in this case,"Lederman said, noting that she ultimately held the Department of Children andFamilies responsible.

The judge's remarks came as the girl's caretaker told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America she hasn't seen Rilya since January 2001 when a woman claiming to be a Florida state caseworker took the child away for an evaluation.

Geralyn Graham said that that woman claimed to work for the Florida's Department of Children and Families and said the child needed to be taken in for some required tests.

Graham said Rilya, whose first name is an acronym for "really I love you always," was never returned.

The youngster wasn't reported missing to police until April 25 and police are now investigating the case as a possible homicide.

Welfare Agency Takes Responsibility

Graham said the woman didn't have any official documents, but that it didn't strike her as odd.

"It was in line with everything else that had happened with us at the Department of Children," she told Good Morning America. "When Rilya was brought to me, she was brought to my house, left in my living room without any paperwork or anything, just left there."

Graham said she believed the woman's story because she seemed to know a lot about the agency, including the name of the girl's regular caseworker. The state, however, says it never had an order to pick up the child.

In March, Rilya's former caseworker resigned after an agency investigation revealed she sometimes lied about checking up on her assigned children.