The Nation - News from Aug. 18, 1988

Maria DeSillers gave up her BMW but refused to even consider relinquishing a grave plot near her late son to a curator who is seeking to recover misspent money from the boy’s liver transplant fund. In an emergency hearing before Circuit Judge Francis Christie in Miami, DeSillers agreed to immediately surrender the luxury car, but when the judge wanted to talk about a grave plot the curator wanted, she turned to her attorneys and said, “No!” The hearing was the result of an emergency motion by court-appointed curator Karen Gievers, who asked that DeSillers be held in contempt for failing to obey a court order to turn over items she allegedly purchased with money donated for the liver transplants of her son, Ronnie. Ronnie, 7, died in April, 1987, while awaiting his fourth transplant.