An Arizona family has found some solace after learning that a Fort Bragg officer accused of murdering his adopted children is now behind bars in the Harnett County jail.
Warrant Officer Anthony Rivera, 36, of Fayetteville, and his former wife Danielle Kennedy, 36, of Arizona, were charged May 19 with two counts of murder, two counts of felony negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury, and two counts of intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury.
The pair are charged with abusing and killing Michael Rivera, 3, on Nov. 18, 2017, and his sister, 2-year-old Olivia Rivera, who died on Jan. 14, 2018. The couple adopted the children in 2017 before moving from Arizona to North Carolina.
Both are being held in the Harnett County jail. On Wednesday, a bond hearing for Rivera was delayed to September.
This is the first time that Rivera has been jailed, even though the U.S. Army sought to court-martial him for the killings after Harnett County prosecutors dropped the case. He has also never been removed from active duty with the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, records show.
Harnett County District Attorney Suzanne Matthews declined to comment on the case Wednesday, including why her office changed its mind about prosecuting Rivera. Army officials have also declined to comment or provide documents related to their investigation.
Rivera’s attorney Deborrah Newton filed a motion June 1 seeking his release on bond until the case is tried. In the motion, Newton noted that Rivera is a suicide risk and remains on active duty in North Carolina, even though the military investigation continues.
She claimed that Harnett County jail officials have violated Rivera’s constitutional right against cruel punishment by holding him “under inhumane circumstances” since his arrest, in “an open front lobby cell with a roommate, naked but for a blanket to cover himself.”
His access to medical services and communication with his current wife have been limited, she said.
Rivera’s supporters in the courtroom Wednesday declined to identify themselves or comment on the charges.
Arizona adoption, move to NC
The arrests last month came as a relief to Michael and Olivia’s family, their cousin Amanda Johnson said.
The Phoenix, Arizona, resident traveled to North Carolina multiple times last year and launched her own investigation, speaking with law enforcement, medical personnel and others about why there had been no arrests in the case.
“While nothing can ease the pain of their suffering and murder at the hands of their adoptive parents, I hope this process brings some measure of justice and awareness,” Johnson said in a statement after the arrests.
“My family is forever grateful for the diligent work of prosecutors and law enforcement in pursuing this case. It shows why we need to protect children and stop this from happening again,” she said.
The children’s mother was addicted to meth when she gave birth to Michael and Olivia in Arizona, according to their autopsies. The children were placed in foster care, and the Riveras, who had three biological sons, started the process to adopt them in March 2017.
An Arizona child welfare worker who visited the family that month reported seeing bruises on Michael’s back, according to the medical examiner’s report. In April 2017, Michael was seen twice at the Chiricahua Community Health Center in Arizona, it said.
Rivera, who had served in the Army since 2008, including with the 82nd Airborne in Iraq and Afghanistan, re-enlisted a month later for another six years. The couple began planning a move to North Carolina and officially adopted Michael and Olivia on Aug. 1, 2017.
On Sept. 28, 2017, the family moved into an off-base, two-story home in Harnett County, North Carolina.
Three days later, the Riveras took Olivia to a local hospital, where her autopsy says they told staff she fell down the stairs and hurt her arm. There were bruises on her eyelid, nose and back, and a fracture in her right arm, the report said.
On Oct. 31, the Riveras took Michael to a pediatrician after he complained of back pain that kept him from bending over due to also falling down the stairs, an autopsy said. He was referred to a Wake Orthopaedic Clinic surgeon a few days later, who found a “tender lump” on his spine. An MRI was scheduled for Nov. 21.
Michael never made it to that appointment.
Both children had traumatic injuries
On Nov. 18, Rivera told deputies that Michael was napping after lunch while Kennedy ran errands with their sons. Michael woke up “pale, staring off and moaning,” the autopsy said. Rivera waited for his wife to come home before taking the boy to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, located 35 miles away in Fayetteville.
Michael grew unresponsive during the ride and slumped over in his seat, the report says. The family pulled into a Walmart parking lot just after 4 p.m., and Kennedy called 911 while an off-duty nurse who saw them gave CPR to Michael. An ambulance took him to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:41 p.m.
A Nov. 20 autopsy found several scrapes and bruises on Michael’s face, arms and legs. The medical examiner blamed his death on blunt force trauma that caused a severe spinal cord injury, torn aorta and internal bleeding.
Yet, Olivia remained with the Rivera family.
The Harnett County Department of Social Services did not get involved or review Michael’s death, because there had been no child welfare contact with the family in the previous 12 months, according to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services records.
That would change when Olivia died just two months later, after Rivera put her in a crib around 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 14, 2018. An hour later, he returned to find her face down and unresponsive, her autopsy says.
An ambulance took her to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, where she died. The medical examiner cited multiple blunt force injuries, reporting scrapes and bruises on her face, neck, shoulder and limbs, along with a tear in her spine, a hip fracture and internal bleeding.
“An asphyxial component to the death cannot be excluded,” the report says, adding that Olivia had several fractures to her arms, ribs, shoulder, spine and leg, some of which had been healing.
The Harnett County Sheriff’s Office worked with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division to investigate Olivia’s death, but Harnett County Assistant District Attorney Donald Harrop declined to prosecute Rivera.
In 2021, the Army charged him with two counts of murder, according to records obtained by The N&O. The general court-martial was withdrawn March 1, 2023, and re-filed on March 13. After two more hearings, the court-martial was withdrawn again in October 2023.
Cousin presses for answers, arrest
Johnson learned what happened to Michael and Olivia soon after they died, she said, but because it was a closed adoption, her family had limited access to information. They had relatives in Arizona who would have taken them, she said, but they gave the mother time to get her life together, and then, it was too late.
“As far as I knew, they were with a wonderful family in Hayden, Arizona. They were thriving. They had three other siblings that they had grown very close to, and they were in a very good situation,” Johnson said.
“The main reason that I started reaching out to people, to Marcia [Herman-Giddens], and reaching out to the medical examiner for autopsy reports and everything is because I … feel like they’re just sweeping us under the rug,” she said.
Herman-Giddens, a UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health adjunct professor and expert on child-abuse fatalities, is also the former Child Fatality Prevention Team medical director for the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
As a senior consultant with the NC Child Advocacy Institute — now NC Child — Herman-Giddens led the publication of “Not Invisible, Not in Vain: Child Maltreatment Fatalities, Guidelines for Response,” a best-practices guide to dealing with child abuse homicides.
The story about the Rivera children falling down the stairs should have been a red flag, Herman-Giddens told The News & Observer last year, and the lack of action by DSS to remove the other children from the Rivera home was a “complete failure of Social Services.”
“Those children have more injuries than I ever saw in my entire career at the [medical examiner’s] office with abused children. Both have severed spinal cords and old injuries,” Herman-Giddens said. “It takes tremendous force — tremendous force — to cause the injuries that those children have, especially the spinal cord and other injuries.”
Records suggest DSS failed to act
A state DHHS report after Olivia’s death recommended more training for Harnett County DSS staff in how to use temporary safety providers, such as a relative or close family friend.
It also noted the need for an agreement between local authorities and Fort Bragg for how to handle child safety planning and death investigations involving active-duty service members, as well as the need for state guidance in protecting children if their sibling dies and there is no active law enforcement investigation.
A Harnett County DSS attorney denied The N&O’s request last year for records showing whether child welfare employees contacted the Rivera family after Michael’s death. State law ensures those records are private, unless someone is charged with a crime.
The N&O emailed the attorney Tuesday but has not yet received the records. State law gives the office five days to respond.
Court records indicate Rivera and Kennedy’s three biological sons were removed from the home by 2020, when Harnett County DSS obtained separate child support orders for both parents.
What drives her now, Johnson said, is getting justice for Michael and Olivia, and making sure other children don’t face the same fate, including in her own family. She and her husband have since adopted two more cousins who faced life in the foster system.
“I won’t have any comfort until I know that I’ve exhausted all possibilities and that I’ve fought for these kids, since no one else is. These were beautiful, healthy, young children who were loved,” Johnson said.
“I know this isn’t an isolated incident ... and so my hope is that things won’t get swept under the rug for other families,” she said.
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
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