Questions Linger In Girl's Death

TAMPA - Eleven-year-old Rikka Pinckney stopped breathing one night in June 2006 while lying on a bare mattress in her foster mother's Town 'N Country mobile home.

A pillow stained with blood lay on the floor. A 13-year-old foster child sharing the bedroom with Rikka later told authorities she used the pillow to smother Rikka, who had Down syndrome.

She said she and a 16-year-old foster girl, who also slept in the room, then slammed Rikka's body against a dresser to make her look "more dead."

Eighteen months later, troubling questions still swirl around Rikka's death.

Why were the three girls, all diagnosed as mentally challenged with histories of violent behavior, allowed to share a bedroom? Their foster mother, Delores Wilson, said she was never told of their pasts.

Why was Wilson reinstated as a foster parent for special-needs children following the loss of her Florida license a year earlier?

And, perhaps most basic, how did Rikka die?

An autopsy originally concluded the once boisterous little girl died from congenital heart disease associated with Down syndrome. After the 13-year-old confessed to smothering Rikka, Hillsborough County's chief medical examiner amended the findings on Aug. 18, 2006.

The official cause of death remains "undetermined."

'Emergency! Emergency!'

Delores Wilson told sheriff's deputies she was awakened around 11 p.m. June 30, 2006, to the sound of her 16-year-old foster daughter screaming, "Emergency! Emergency!"

The girl had gone to the bathroom and returned to a bedroom she shared with Rikka and the 13-year-old foster girl. Rikka was lying on her back on a mattress without sheets. A pillow covered her face, the 16-year-old recalled. The other girl stood nearby.

Wilson called 911. Her son-in-law, who lives in the home, tried to revive Rikka. When a sheriff's deputy arrived, she noted roaches crawling along the walls and bed. Rikka had a fresh-looking bruise on her forehead.

Paramedics performed CPR, then rushed Rikka with a faint heartbeat to Town & Country Hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead at 11:41 p.m.

Sheriff's detectives interviewed Wilson, her son-in-law and the two teens. The 13-year-old was taken to a mental health facility, where she eventually told a crisis counselor she smothered Rikka.

The girl later told authorities she had a sexual relationship with the 16-year-old, who had suggested she kill Rikka. They slammed Rikka's body against a dresser, according to Florida Department of Children & Families' records requested by The Tampa Tribune and released last week.

The initial autopsy stated Rikka died of natural causes related to an anomaly of her heart, though the report catalogued other medical oddities, including at least 13 bite marks.

After the 13-year-old said she had smothered Rikka, Hillsborough County's chief medical examiner, Vernard Adams, reviewed his autopsy notes. There were no signs of a struggle, but he couldn't rule out that Rikka was smothered so Adams changed the cause of death to undetermined.

Agency Questioned

DCF investigators turned to Florida Mentor, the foster care agency responsible for the girls. Why were these girls with violent histories allowed to share the same bedroom and what, if anything, had workers told Wilson about their pasts?

Florida Mentor officials didn't have satisfactory answers, DCF investigators said.

In a prepared statement to the Tribune this week, the agency's deputy state director, Sheila McKnew, said Florida Mentor conducted an internal review and underwent a corrective action plan that included making personnel changes and increasing training.

The agency also assumed the costs for Rikka's burial, McKnew wrote.

There were other questions, too, such as why Wilson had her two grandchildren, ages 4 and 5, and their father living in her three-bedroom mobile home. Wilson said another agency, Safe Children's Coalition of Pinellas County, placed the grandkids with her. The man is their legal father and passed a background check to live with the family, records showed.

The state placed Florida Mentor on probation in June 2006 and conducted its own review of the foster care agency, DCF spokesman Andy Ritter said. That included on-site visits to each Mentor foster home to verify safety plans and sleeping arrangements.

DCF relicensed Florida Mentor on Sept. 1, 2006, after the agency successfully completed all tasks, Ritter said.

Wilson, Rikka's foster mother, lost her foster parenting license following Rikka's death. It took nearly a year before the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office cleared Wilson of any criminal wrongdoing on June 22, 2007.

There was no proof Wilson had any knowledge of Rikka's heart problems or the girls' histories that probably should have kept them from being alone together, chief prosecutor Rita Peters said.

The state declined to pursue charges against the 13-year-old or the 16-year-old because both are mentally challenged, Peters said. State records show that at the time the 13-year-old had an IQ of 49.

DCF moved her from the crisis center to a group home. In general, a child's violent behavior is assessed on a case-by-case basis and is carefully considered when determining the child's placement, Ritter said.

Foster parents are to be advised of all behavioral challenges before a child enters their home, he said.

But Wilson thinks that's not happening. Since Rikka's death, the 65-year-old grandmother has become a one-woman crusade to help other foster parents statewide gain access to personal information about children coming into their homes.

Seeking Greater Access

Wilson went before a task force of child welfare leaders in August to push for a Foster Parent Bill of Rights. The proposed bill, approved in other states, calls for better training for foster parents and gives them an opportunity to review children's histories before they are placed in the parents' homes.

In her emotional plea, Wilson said no one warned her the 13-year-old was extremely aggressive, had bitten other children and hit her former foster parents.

"She never should've been with a small child," Wilson told the Tribune last month.

Her request caught the attention of DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth and his safety director, George Sheldon, who are lobbying legislators to give foster parents access to foster children's records.

Some information must remain confidential to protect the child's privacy, Sheldon conceded.

"But I think it's critical that foster parents know the general background of the children they're taking," he said this week.

Sheldon cited DCF's recent $10 million settlement with foster parents in Palm Beach who took three brothers without knowing they had been severely sexually abused. The parents specifically requested not to have children with prior sexual abuse, Sheldon said.

"Foster parents want to be partners with us. How can they be when we don't tell them what they need to know?" Sheldon said.

Foster Mother's History

While her cause was publicly celebrated among state leaders, Wilson quietly became the subject of an Inspector General's investigation initiated by DCF's Regional Director Nick Cox of Tampa and completed in October.

The report, obtained by the Tribune, showed DCF licensed Wilson in 2003 despite evidence her foster license in Alabama was in jeopardy before she moved to the Tampa Bay area. She had refused to let a caseworker into her home, the investigation said.

Wilson last month produced a letter from Seraaj Family Homes Inc. dated July 28, 2003, that showed her license was in good standing.

She lost her Florida license in 2005, however. Caseworkers from Camelot Care Inc. in Tampa said she allowed a 19-year-old foster teen's baby to live with Wilson and a 14-year-old foster boy, who was not supposed to be around small children.

Wilson also lied about her grandchildren living with her, telling caseworkers she was babysitting the toddlers, according to DCF's report.

Wilson contends she never said any such thing. "They lied to cover up their own mistakes," she said.

'I Loved Being A Foster Parent'

Within four months, Wilson reapplied through Florida Mentor, the national case management agency contracted by DCF to provide therapeutic foster care services. DCF, which oversees the licensing procedure, not only reinstated Wilson but allowed her to care for children with special needs.

Florida Mentor "recommended that she be a foster parent," Ritter said. "The department determined there was not sufficient legal grounds to deny or revoke the license."

Less than a year later, DCF would move to revoke Wilson's license following Rikka's death. Wilson said she tried to fight DCF to regain her license, but officials retaliated against her for speaking out about the girl. She is considering appealing the state's decision.

"I loved being a foster parent," Wilson said. "I don't feel I did anything wrong."

Tampa attorney Adam Brum, who represents Rikka's biological mother, calls the little girl's death a senseless tragedy. He plans to file paperwork by the end of the year to notify DCF of a potential lawsuit over Rikka's death.

But the bigger picture, Brum said, is protecting other children in Florida's foster care system, especially those such as Rikka, whose special needs make them more vulnerable.

"These children don't deserve to suffer like she did," Brum said.