The Nation - News from Aug. 16, 1988

Maria DeSillers, fighting to control money donated for her late son Ronnie’s liver transplants, defied a court order by refusing to surrender property bought with the cash or post a $100,000 bond. DeSiller’s lawyer, Frank Johnson, said his client was unable to raise the bond and would not relinquish the personal items until a specific list was supplied by the court-appointed curator for the estate of Ronnie DeSillers. Johnson planned to meet with DeSillers to discuss an appeal for an emergency stay of the expired order. Circuit Judge Francis Christie rejected Johnson’s last-minute effort to reduce the bond. Ronnie DeSillers died in April, 1987, in Pittsburgh, Pa., while awaiting his fourth transplant. In July, Christie ruled that after Ronnie’s death, donations should have been used to aid other sick children.