Delaware County Daily Times - Oct 20, 1999 Article

Advocate: Rivera didn't hurt baby

Delaware County Daily Times (Primos - Upper Darby, PA) - Wednesday, October 20, 1999

Author: ROSE QUINN ; Of the Times Staff

Two weeks ago, Jaci Morris was there when an 8-year-old Lower Chichester girl took her inaugural wheelchair walk along a brand new ramp.

Now Morris, a special projects manager with the Community Housing and Human Relations Board, wants to help another child who may be in desperate need Katelyn Rivera-Helton.

Morris has already visited Katelyn 's father and accused kidnapper Robert N. Rivera once at the county prison. Last night, she returned again. "

I've asked him if he if hurt her," said Morris, who's taking on the child advocate role without the blessing of the CCCRB because she feels the only way to resolve the tension with Rivera and Katelyn 's mother, Jennifer Helton, is by open communication."

He stared right in my face and said, I would never hurt her.'"

Morris said Rivera can't even say Katelyn 's name without crying."

He says she is safe."

Added Morris: "I believe him."

Last week, authorities said they recovered a yellow sock and rhinestone-studded sneaker that the nearly 2-year-old girl was wearing when her father barged into her Upper Chichester day care provider's home and carried her away 72 days ago.

Those items, in addition to written statements by Rivera that he alone knows Katelyn 's whereabouts, have created what Delaware County District Attorney Patrick Meehan called "circumstantial issues" in the high-profile case.

Meehan said such evidence would contradict Rivera 's account that he gave his daughter to a couple he met but did not know at Longwood Gardens in Chester County the night of the kidnapping.

In one of two letters to the Daily Times, Rivera offered details of the clothing Katelyn wore "the day I removed her from day care."

In another letter, he wrote, "I am the only one who knows the true story I know where my daughter is located."

Morris attended a benefit at the RS Club in Woodlyn after reading about the missing child in the newspaper. She was disappointed that more people didn't turn out for the event.

She has since written to Rivera in prison.

Then last week, Rivera ' girlfriend, Michele Lupi, showed up at her front door saying she was there on Rivera 's behalf.

Last Tuesday, Morris accompanied Lupi to the facility.

She was not expecting such an emotional encounter.

Morris said Rivera trusts no one."

He can't read. He can't write, he had very slow speech," she said.

Morris, a child advocate for the last year and a half, is confined to a wheelchair and has been a proponent of the American Disabilities Act. Yesterday, she called Rivera "disabled." "

This man has a learning disability," she said.

According to Morris, Rivera is in 20-hour lockup at the prison.

When he's not behind bars, "he's getting beat up," she said.

Morris said she is not on anyone's side but one."

I only care about Katelyn ," she said. "

If he trusted me enough to tell me where she is, I'd go and get her myself," she said.

But Morris said she would not return the child to her mother.

"I'd take her to Donna Kibbie," she said, referring to the federal agent working the case along with county detective Lt. David C. Peifer.