Mother Not in Contempt in Donations Suit

Maria DeSillers need not give up financial records of donations for her dying son’s liver transplants, a judge ruled Thursday, dismissing contempt motions that could have landed her in jail.

Forcing DeSillers to surrender the records and items allegedly bought with some of the $690,000 in donations to the court-appointed curator of her son Ronnie’s estate “would tend to incriminate her,” Dade County Probate Judge Francis Christie said.

During the two-day contempt hearing, attorney Roy Black argued that DeSillers had a Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because prosecutors in Dade and Broward counties are investigating her for possible criminal violations.

DeSillers received massive publicity last year after the theft of $4,000 that her 7-year-old son’s classmates had raised for the boy’s liver transplant.

Donations poured in, including $1,000 from President Reagan and $200,000 from Miami Beach industrialist Victor Posner. Ronnie DeSillers died in April, 1987, when awaiting a fourth transplant at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Karen Gievers, appointed by the court in March to oversee Ronnie’s estate, said his mother apparently had spent about $200,000 in donations improperly, including $13,500 for a used BMW and $11,000 for jewelry. Gievers had sought the records to confirm her findings.