Miami ? A judge lashed out Monday at the state Department of Children & Families, calling their handling of the case of a missing 5-year-old girl “absolutely despicable.”

Meanwhile, lawyers argued over who actually was taking care of Rilya Wilson when she disappeared 16 months ago, injecting another layer of confusion into the case.

“It is absolutely despicable what happened in this case,” Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman told agency attorneys in court. “I don’t even know how to respond to what has been done in this case by this caseworker, but she also has defrauded this court.”

Children & Families Secretary Kathleen Kearney, a former Broward County juvenile judge, said she understood Lederman’s frustration over caseworker Deborah Muskelly’s “skimpy and sketchy report” and apparent misrepresentations.

“I fully appreciate and understand her anger and frustration,” Kearney said. “She had every right to be exceptionally angry.”

Gov. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, named a four-member panel to examine the state’s child protection system in Miami-Dade County.

Responding to the panel’s formation, Kearney said, “They will realize that this particular case, unbelievably tragic, is an isolated event, and our children are safe.”

Nearly two months after Rilya was last seen in January 2001, Muskelly told Lederman that Rilya was in day care, the judge said. In a report submitted Aug. 31, 2001, Muskelly said Rilya’s custodian was addressing her needs, the juvenile court judge said.

Detectives are now treating Rilya’s disappearance as a possible homicide. Investigators are waiting for DNA test results from police in Kansas City, Mo., to see if a girl found beheaded there in April 2001, dubbed “Precious Doe,” was Rilya.

Guardianship questions

The court hearing raised new questions about who had been caring for the child before her disappearance.

Linda Wells, the department’s top lawyer, said Pamela Graham had been given legal custody. She is the sister of Geralyn Graham, who has identified herself as the girl’s paternal grandmother. The state concedes the identity of Rilya’s father is in dispute.

Maria Shohat, a lawyer for the Grahams, said the sisters were together and jointly cared for Rilya.

Geralyn Graham failed to bring her driver’s license on the day that she was to sign the custody papers, Shohat said. A department official suggested that Pamela Graham could provide her license instead, and the papers were signed giving Pamela Graham legal custody.

“They were always in the custody of both women. They always cared for the children,” Shohat said.

Geralyn Graham has said a woman claiming to be a state caseworker took Rilya for evaluation in January 2001 and never returned her. DCF officials have no record of the girl being in state custody now.

The actions of Muskelly, who resigned in March for her performance in other cases, are a target of the criminal investigation involving Rilya. Kearney raised the possibility of criminal perjury charges against Muskelly.

The judge said Rilya was ultimately the court’s responsibility but said she held the DCF to blame.

Muskelly has denied wrongdoing, and told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last Friday, “the case was not my responsibility.” Muskelly has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached for comment Monday.

Asked about the possibility of charges against Muskelly, Chief Assistant State Atty. Kathleen Hoague said, “I really can’t comment on the investigation itself.”

Paternity twist

Meanwhile, Manville Cash, a jailed man listed on state documents as the father of the missing 5-year-old, told The Miami Herald on Sunday that he doubts reports that his daughter was taken from the Grahams’ house.

He said he was dating Rilya’s mother, Gloria Wilson, for 10 months before the girl was born in September 1996.

Cash has been convicted of roughly a half-dozen charges robbery, battery, possession of cocaine during the past 15 years, according state criminal records. But records show Cash was not in jail during the 10 months leading up to Rilya’s birth.

Geralyn Graham said she is Rilya’s grandmother and that her son, Kenneth Epson, is the girl’s father.

A court document terminating Gloria Wilson’s parental rights lists Cash as the “prospective father.” That determination came after an acknowledgment from Cash that he was the father, according to DCF records and Cash. The state did not conduct paternity tests, Cash said.