MARCHELLA PIERCE - 4 yo (2010) - Brooklyn/NYC NY

The police are investigating the death of a sickly 4-year-old girl in
Brooklyn whose body was found after her mother called 911 on Thursday
morning and reported the child was unresponsive. The girl, Marchella
Pierce, weighed only 15 pounds and had suffered severe health problems
since birth, the authorities said. Detectives were trying to determine whether the girl had been bound to a
bed after they found marks on her ankles that appeared consistent with
twine that was found tied to the head- and foot-boards of a small bed in
her mother’s bedroom, where the girl was found. The police said they did not know whether the girl’s weight was the
result of malnourishment or her health problems. She was born
prematurely and had been hospitalized for most of her life, her father,
Tyrone Pierce, who did not live with the family, said on Thursday. He
said he had never heard about his daughter being “in restraints.” The police said the girl had underdeveloped lungs and had a tube inserted in her trachea. An oxygen tank was in the bedroom. The family had been monitored by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services
after the mother had a third child, a boy, in November who was born
with drugs in his system, according to a person familiar with the case.
The Administration for Children’s Services said in a statement that
after the November birth, it hired a private nonprofit company in
January to work with the family. The girl was still in the hospital at
the time but was released the next month. A preliminary review of the case showed that the company, Child Development Support Corporation, visited the family “far less than the required two to three times per week,” the statement said. “We don’t yet know all the facts in this case, but we will get to the
bottom of it as quickly as possible, and we’ll take every appropriate
action as quickly as possible,” John B. Mattingly, the commissioner of
children’s services, said in the statement. Marcia Rowe-Riddick, the company’s executive director, expressed
surprise when told of the agency’s comments. She said the company worked
closely with the Administration for Children’s Services on the case
until June 30. At that time, she said, the company turned the Pierce
family’s case and all its other cases over to Children’s Services
because its contract had expired. She also said the contracts the company typically held with the agency
required four to five visits a month, not two to three a week. The Administration for Children’s Services “has not even called me,” she
said. She said an agency audit of her company’s cases in April or May
had been satisfactory. A spokeswoman for Children’s Services declined to
comment except to say, “We’re looking into this case in detail.” The police received a 911 call from the family’s apartment at 823
Madison Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant at 7:30 a.m. Officers found the
girl in the back bedroom, lying face-up and unconscious on her mother’s
bed. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The police said that the girl’s mother, Carlotta Pierce, told detectives
she had checked on her daughter at 6:30 a.m. and found her unresponsive
and with cold hands but said her chest was still warm. She reported
that she tried to revive the girl unsuccessfully and called 911 about 45
minutes later. The police are awaiting an autopsy to determine the
cause of death. The girl’s grandmother and her two brothers, ages 5 and 9 months, were
also in the apartment when the police arrived. The boys appeared
healthy, the police said. They have been placed in foster care while the investigation continues. Adele Small, 54, a next-door neighbor, said she knew the family well and
that the children “all seem happy, clean, and dressed nice.” Mr. Pierce said the girl weighed 1 pound 4 ounces when she was born. She
had been out of the hospital only since February, he said, and could
barely talk above a whisper. But despite her poor health, she “was funny
and playful,” he said. As for her mother, Mr. Pierce said “she was a great mom,” who had
desperately wanted her girl to come home from the hospital. Choking up
as he spoke, he said that he last saw her on Tuesday and that she
appeared fine as he kissed her good night.

A four-year-old girl who suffered from severe health problems since
birth and weighed about 15 pounds was found dead in her family's
Brooklyn apartment Thursday despite efforts by her mother to revive her,
authorities said.Police were investigating the circumstances
leading up to Marchella Pierce's death and questioned her mother and
father, who told detectives the child was born prematurely along with a
twin sister who died at birth. The Bedford-Stuyvesant couple told police
Marchella spent her entire life living in hospitals before being
released to their care in February.Marchella, who was born weighing 1 pound, 4 ounces, had undersized
lungs and required the assistance of a tracheotomy tube to breath, her
family and police said. At the time of her death, she appeared severely
malnourished and authorities were investigating whether it was related
to her condition, officials said. The girl's body was found in
her mother's bed, police said. A law-enforcement official with knowledge
of the case said Marchella's smaller bed nearby had four pieces of
twine attached to the head and foot rails, and marks on the girl's
ankles suggest the child may have been restrained at some point."The
detectives are interviewing the mother and awaiting the results of an
autopsy," said top police spokesman, Paul Browne. A spokeswoman for the
city medical examiner said an autopsy was scheduled for Friday.Police
said the child's mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30, checked on her at
about 6:30 a.m. and found she wasn't completely responsive and her hands
were cold. She then tried to revive Marchella without success and
called 911 at about 7:30 a.m. The emergency operator gave Ms.
Brett-Pierce instructions to continue CPR, police said. By the time
officers arrived, Marchella had died.Authorities also found an oxygen tank in the bedroom. The child's
grandmother and two siblings, a 5-year-old boy and a 9-month-old boy,
were also in the apartment. The law-enforcement official said the two
boys appeared to be in good health and were in police custody while Ms.
Brett-Pierce was being questioned.An official with knowledge of the case said the family has a history with the Administration for Children's Services. The
agency became involved when Marchella's younger brother was born in
November 2009, the official said. ACS brought in a "preventive" agency,
Child Development Support Corp., to work with the family in January of
this year but a review of the case shows that there were far fewer
visits to Marchella's home than the required two to three times per
week, the official said. ACS no longer works with the CDSC, the official
said.ACS commissioner, John Mattingly, said in a statement his
agency is "deeply saddened and troubled by this tragic loss of life, and
we have begun conducting a full investigation." The statement
continued: "We don't yet know all the facts in this case, but we will
get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible, and we'll take every
appropriate action as quickly as possible." Officials with CDSC, a
not-for-profit group that specializes in child-care services for needy
families, couldn't be immediately reached for comment.Marchella's
father, Tyrone Pierce, 30, said he doesn't live with the family but
remains married to Ms. Brett-Pierce and often sees his children. He
described his wife as a "great mother" and said Marchella "was
beautiful, smart, very playful" despite her ailments.Mr. Pierce
said his daughter struggled with eating solid food after she was
released from her long hospital stay where she was fed through a feeding
tube. "Her weight was always up and down," he said. Mr. Pierce
said he and his wife were required to take classes in CPR and how to
maintain the tracheotomy tube before Marchella was released to their
custody. He said Ms. Brett-Pierce was conscientious about the girl's
health."Ever since [Marchella] was in the hospital, [her mother]
always wanted her home," he said. "She's a great mother." He said he had
never seen the girl tied down to the bed and was surprised by the
suggestion.Mr. Pierce was questioned by police and spoke as he
left the 81st Precinct. He said he was aware of an ACS matter involving
his family, but that he didn't know the details, except that he
understood the case was closed. He became tearful when he
recalled the last time he saw Marchella on Tuesday. "She was in her bed,
going to sleep and I gave her a kiss," he said.
Jose Rosado, 44, a neighbor, said he had never seen Marchella but often
saw Ms. Brett-Pierce with her older boy and infant son. "I always see
the boy running around," Mr. Rosado said. "He looks good—well dressed
and well maintained."

Two days after the bruised, emaciated body of a 4-year-old girl was
discovered in a Brooklyn apartment, new information from officials
emerged about her life and death as her mother on Saturday made her
first appearance in court to face criminal charges. In a criminal complaint, prosecutors outlined a fearsome litany of abuse
that they said the girl, Marchella Pierce, suffered in her final days
at the hands of her mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30. The girl, who had
been plagued by severe health problems since her birth on April 30,
2006, weighed 18 pounds when she died, according to the complaint. Ms. Brett-Pierce repeatedly struck the girl with a belt and a video box
at their home on Madison Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the complaint
said, citing a witness account. The mother lashed the girl to a bed with
twine and forced her “to take blue sleeping pills,” the complaint
added. The girl’s body was emaciated and covered with bruises on her head,
torso and limbs, and “ligature marks” were found on her feet, apparently
from where her mother affixed them to the bed’s footboard with twine,
the complaint said. In interviews with detectives, Ms. Brett-Pierce admitted tying the girl
down on Wednesday, “because the child was wild,” Tracey Downing, an
assistant district attorney, said at Ms. Brett-Pierce’s arraignment in
Brooklyn Criminal Court. “The mother said she tied the child because the child got up at night
and ate from the refrigerator and made a mess,” Ms. Downing said. The abuse took place when, in the opinion of a physician for the medical
examiner’s office, the girl’s state of malnutrition “put her at a grave
risk of death,” the complaint said. In an arraignment that lasted about 10 minutes, Ms. Brett-Pierce stood
silently, dressed in a hooded white sweat shirt, blue jeans and white
sneakers. She clasped her hands behind her back. At one point, she
smiled and waved to her mother, Loretta, and to her brother, Brian
Colas, who sat together in the courtroom. Her mother waved back. The case is still under investigation by law enforcement and medical authorities, as well as by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, which had been monitoring the family since at least November, officials said. Ms. Brett-Pierce’s lawyer, George Sheinberg, pointed out that his client
had not been charged with homicide and said she should be released on
her own recognizance. But Judge Leonard P. Rienzi ordered Ms.
Brett-Pierce held on $300,000 bail, which appeared to visibly distress
her relatives. “My sister loved her kids,” Mr. Colas, 23, said outside of court after
the hearing. He said the proceeding was the first time he had ever heard
allegations that his sister had restrained or beaten her child. “The media’s trying to make her into an animal,” added Mr. Colas, who
the prosecutor said lives in the apartment with Ms. Brett-Pierce. After the arraignment, Mr. Sheinberg said, “There is nothing to defend
until I get the preliminary reports and autopsy reports.” He added: “The
complaint can say many things, but until we have evidence of what
happened, if anything happened, I have nothing before me. We don’t even
have a medical examiner’s report; we don’t have hospital reports.” A spokeswoman for the child welfare agency said workers were still examining records for information on the case. An autopsy conducted Friday was inconclusive, and Ellen S. Borakove,
spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, said Saturday that
further studies, including forensic testing, investigations and an
analysis of medical records, could take a week or more. The girl’s plight became public after her mother dialed 911 on Thursday
morning, saying her daughter was unresponsive when she tried to wake
her. Ms. Brett-Pierce told investigators her daughter had fallen down
stairs, but the bruises on her body were inconsistent with a fall, Ms.
Downing said. Ms. Brett-Pierce was charged with second-degree assault, endangering the
welfare of a child, unlawful imprisonment and reckless endangerment,
according to the complaint. Mr. Sheinberg said a grand jury hearing
would probably take place on Thursday. The girl’s father, Tyrone Pierce, 30, who is separated from Ms.
Brett-Pierce, was present in court on Saturday but declined to comment.
The complaint said a broken video box “with what appeared to be blood on
it” was found at the family’s home. An official said a plastic
container used to hold a VCR cassette was found in the garbage at the
home.

Budget cuts that created pressure to close or shift oversight of child welfare cases may have led to last week's the death of a 4-year-old, malnourished Brooklyn girl. That's the concern of New York's Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who on Friday announced a probe of the death of Marchella Pierce.
The cuts were eventually restored, but de Blasio says not before more than 2,000 cases were closed between April and July. He questions whether that was appropriate: "Were there families who still needed preventive services who lost them and lost them prematurely?"Marchella Pierce's case was never closed. The city ended a contract with the agency that was supposed to be monitoring her, citing poor performance. The case was transferred back to ACS still open. But it is unclear who was supposed to be monitoring the child that was sickly, fragile and in need of special medical care. Her mother is currently being held on assault charges. The medical examiner is still trying to determine the cause of the child's death. The city's child welfare agency is conducting it's own review and will release information in the next few days. de Blasio's office has requested information from the agency by September 24."We've got a find out how on earth this severe a case was missed because a child in this much danger, 4 years old, 18 pounds -- this should have been all over ACS' radar", says de Blasio.

A supervisor and a caseworker for New York City’s child welfare agency have been suspended without pay for failing to adequately oversee the case of a bruised and emaciated 4-year-old girl who was found dead in her mother’s apartment in Brooklyn this month, the agency said Friday. Admitting for the first time that there had been internal breakdowns in the case, the agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, said in a brief statement that there had been “lapses in frontline protective practice.” The suspended workers, who had been assigned to the agency’s Brooklyn field office, came under scrutiny after agency officials investigating the girl’s death found a lack of documentation to show that the workers had made the proper number of contacts with the family. The agency declined to provide any details about how often the workers had visited the family or what other services they had provided, except to say, in the statement, that they did not follow “standard policies and procedures.” It did not identify the workers, who were suspended last week. The disciplinary action came after the agency initially accused a private service provider of failing to make enough visits to the family, even though the city’s contract with the provider had ended months earlier and the agency had resumed responsibility for the case. The agency’s missteps in the case of the girl, Marchella Pierce, who died on Sept. 2, have echoes of past failures, even though the agency instituted a series of reforms after the 2006 death of Nixzmary Brown, 7. Marchella had been in the hospital most of her life and needed the help of a breathing tube when she returned home in February. She weighed 18 pounds, less than many 1-year-olds, when the police found her dead inside her family’s apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Prosecutors have charged the girl’s mother with second-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful imprisonment and reckless endangerment. Ms. Brett-Pierce struck the girl with a belt and a video cassette case, according to prosecutors, and told investigators that she had tied her to a bed at night to keep her from taking food from the refrigerator and making a mess. Investigators are awaiting further tests by the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of the girl’s death. The case has raised concerns among child protection advocates over the sharp decline in families’ receiving preventive services through the agency. The programs, usually assigned to outside contractors, provide counseling, drug treatment and other help to families in crisis, in an effort to keep children at home and out of the foster care system. Marchella and her family had been assigned to one such provider in January, more than a month after the girl’s mother had given birth to a son who was found to have drugs in his system. Immediately after the girl’s death, the city’s child welfare agency said the provider, Child Development Support Corporation, had made “far less” than the two to three weekly visits that were required, which the organization disputed. In fact, the corporation’s contract with the city had ended in June, and the agency had taken over the case rather than assign it to another provider. In a statement on Sept. 3, the agency said its workers “visited the family throughout the summer,” an assertion that now appears to be in doubt. The number of cases receiving preventive services has fallen nearly 20 percent in the last year, a drop of about 2,000 families and 5,000 children, according to agency figures. The agency said one reason the caseload had fallen was its provision of shorter, more-intensive programs. But the caseload also declined as a result of a contract renewal process that was plagued with problems this spring, as the agency was planning to reduce its preventive services caseload by 3,000 families, due, in part, to budget cuts. The City Council in June restored the financing for most of those slots, but not before many of the outside providers laid off workers or eliminated programs altogether. The agency said it had closely monitored the caseloads to ensure that families who needed services continued to get them, but several child advocacy groups across the city said otherwise. “This was a major screw-up,” said Michael Arsham, executive director of the Child Welfare Organizing Project, an advocacy group. “It was inevitable that families were going to get lost in the shuffle.” The city’s public advocate, Bill deBlasio, who has begun an inquiry in the case, called the drop in caseloads “startling.” “The suspension of these workers reinforces concerns about whether A.C.S.’s handling of cases and lack of resources have left thousands of children in jeopardy,” Mr. deBlasio said Friday. He added that the agency, responding to his inquiry, had promised to provide detailed information about the case next week. “I hope their response will shed a lot more light on what went wrong and how many more kids could be at risk,” he said.

Nearly a month after a 4-year-old girl who weighed just 18 pounds was found dead in her family’s Brooklyn apartment, New York City’s child welfare agency has yet to contact the nonprofit group it briefly contracted to monitor the girl’s case, a group official said Thursday. “I have left messages with them, I’d say, at least twice,” said the official, Marcia Rowe-Riddick, executive director of the group, Child Development Support Corporation. Officials with the agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, did not immediately respond to the claim Thursday night. Shortly after the death of the girl, Marchella Pierce, on Sept. 2, the agency said it had hired the group in January to provide counseling and other services to the girl’s family after her mother gave birth to a son with drugs in his system. The case was sensitive because Marchella, who was born with underdeveloped lungs, had been in the hospital most of her life. She was still there at the time Children’s Services opened a case file on the family and hired the nonprofit group to help it so that Marchella and her two brothers would not have to be placed in foster care. But Children’s Services took over the case at the end of June after the group’s contract with the city expired. Even so, right after the girl’s death, the agency criticized the group’s handling of the case, which Ms. Rowe-Riddick has defended. The city agency, which has suspended a case worker and supervisor contending they failed to properly monitor the case after it was turned over, directed more criticism at the nonprofit group on Thursday. In a letter to the public advocate, Bill deBlasio, who has opened his own inquiry into the agency’s handling of the case, John B. Mattingly, the Children Services commissioner, said the Child Development Support Corporation “never raised nor followed-up with concerns regarding there being three young children in the home, especially one with significant medical needs.” The agency has asked the state to help it review other cases the group turned over to the city when its contract expired. But Ms. Riddick Rowe said that even while her group had the contract, it shared responsibility of Marchella’s case with Children’s Services. Once the contract ended, she said, the group briefed Children’s Services completely on the case and recommended it continue to receive services. The girl’s mother has been charged with second-degree assault and endangering the welfare of the child after the girl’s body was found bruised and severely malnourished.

Mother Charged in Murder of 4-Year-Old Daughter
New indictment adds murder, manslaughter charges to those filed in October
Updated 11:45 AM EST, Tue, Nov 9, 2010

The mother of an emaciated and abused 4-year-old girl found dead in her home two months ago has been charged with murder in connection with the tot's demise, the district attorney's office said.

Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30, was charged today with two counts of second-degree murder and one count each of first-degree manslaughter, second-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child. Those charges are in addition to the second-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment charges revealed in an October indictment against her.

Authorities believe Brett-Pierce tied her daughter, Marchella, to her bed, battered her with household items, deprived her of food and water, and force-fed her over-the-counter medication, including Claritin and Diphenaydramine, a generic form of Benadryl, over a period of two months.

Marchella died Sept. 2 of child abuse syndrome, with acute drug poisoning, blunt impact injuries, malnutrition and dehydration, the indictment says.

Meanwhile, the city's child welfare agency and outside care providers responsible for monitoring Marchella's case are being criminally investigated, a prosecutor's spokesman said last month.

The girl's mother told police she found her 18-pound daughter's cold and unconscious body on Sept. 2 and tried to resuscitate her before calling 911. According to U.S. health statistics, the average weight of a four-year-old in this country is 35 pounds.

Marchella was born with underdeveloped lungs, had serious trouble breathing and had a breathing tube in her throat, authorities said. She had been hospitalized in the months before her death.

The Brooklyn hospital that released Marchella into her mother's custody also will be investigated, prosecutor's spokesman Jerry Schmetterer said.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Mother-of-4-Year-Old-Girl-Found-Dead-in-Home-Charged-With-Murder-106964803.html

Two child welfare workers were charged in the death of a child under
their care - the first such prosecution in the city's history, officials
said Wednesday.Authorities said an Administration for Children's Services case worker failed to visit the Bedford-Stuyvesant home where 4-year-old Marchella Brett-Pierce was found dead in September.The worker, Damon Adams,
was also accused of falsifying records after the girl died weighing
just 18 pounds. Adams' direct supervisor, Chereece Bell, was charged for
not monitoring his work on the case.The ACS workers both
resigned a month after the girl's death. They each face criminally
negligent homicide charges and were expected to be arraigned late
Wednesday.The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office also announced Wednesday that the girl's grandmother, Loretta Brett,
has been indicted for second-degree manslaughter for sleeping in the
same room as the child "night after night as she lay tied in her bed
with no food."Brett never reported the suspected abuse. The girl's mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, is already facing a trial for murder.Police said Marchella was dehydrated, beaten, starved and forced to take adult medication.District Attorney Charles Hynes
vowed to probe whether the city agency followed its own
recommendations, implemented after the tragic and well-publicized death
or Nixzmary Brown in 2006."We're going to find at long last what they're doing at ACS so there are no more children fatalities," he said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/03/23/2011-03-23_new_york_child_welfare_workers_charged_in_death_of_4yearold_marchella_brettpierc.html#ixzz1HRUlVGB8

Mayor Bloomberg defends ACS head as two child welfare workers charged in death of 4-year-old girl

Thursday, March 24th 2011, 2:50 PM
Mayor Michael Bloomberg came out in support of
ACS Commissioner John Mattingly in the aftermath of the charges filed against two child welfare caseworkers.
Mayor Bloomberg came to the defense of embattled Administration for Children's Services Commissioner John Mattingly a day after two child welfare workers were indicted on homicide charges."I don't know if the charges are true but I have 100% confidence in John Mattingly," Bloomberg said Thursday."This
city is so lucky to have him. I don't know what you'd do if you lose
him," Bloomberg said. "Most jobs you can find somebody else. This guy is
world-renowned and has 100% of my confidence."Caseworker Damon
Adams and his supervisor, Chereece Bell, are facing charges of
criminally negligent homicide, official misconduct and endangering the
welfare of a child in the death of 4-year-old Marchella Brett-Pierce.Marchella
was found dead on Sept. 2 weighing just 18 pounds. Prosecutors say the
girl was beaten, starved and drugged over a four-month period.Her mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, was charged with second-degree murder. Marchella's grandmother was indicted Wednesday on manslaughter and other charges.Authorities say that Adams, 36, never visited Marchella's home despite glaring warning signs - and Bell, 34, failed to monitor Adams' work.Adams is also accused of fudging computer records days after Marchella died to show he checked in on her.The
Social Service Employees Union, which represents ACS workers, said
layoffs and program cuts have led to overburdened staffers.But Bloomberg disputed the claims, saying the average caseload for city workers - 10 - is below the national average - 15."It certainly was not a resource problem," Bloomberg said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/24/2011-03-24_mayor_bloomberg_defends_acs_head_as_two_child_welfare_workers_charged_in_death_o.html#ixzz1HfYsf8vq

B'klyn mom accused of starving daughter to death gets lashed by judge

A Brooklyn mother accused of killing her emaciated 4-year-old daughter told a judge on Wednesday she’s “starving” for a speedy start to her murder trial.

Instead Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30, got a dressing down from the judge after the prosecution revealed Brett-Pierce violated a court order by sending letters to her surviving children, one of whom is a witness in the case.

Brett-Pierce told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango she sent the letters to her kids – ages 1 and 5 – to “tell them I love them.”

DiMango was unimpressed. "If you violate that order of protection from today forward I will deal with it more harshly than you can think,” DiMango said.

An indictment charges Brett-Pierce killed Marchella last September and lists the cause of death as "child abuse syndrome with acute drug poisoning, blunt impact injuries, malnutrition and dehydration."

Brett-Pierce, whined that she hadn’t seen her other children in the five months she’s been held without bail.

“I’m starving for this trial to start,” she said, asking DiMango to impanel a jury immediately. “I did not hurt my baby. I did not kill my baby.”

DiMango demurred, citing essential pre-trial proceedings, but agreed to move the case along quickly.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said that a video cassette box and spatters on the wall tested positive for Marchella’s blood, but samples from a belt and buckle used to beat the child have not been analyzed yet.

Brett-Pierce, who pleaded not guilty, faces up to 25-years-to-life on charges of murder, manslaughter and assault, among others.

She will face additional charges if the letters contain any threats against the child-witness, prosecutors said.

“I’m starving for this trial to start,” she said, asking DiMango to impanel a jury immediately.

Shades of Casey Anthony. How could she use this term to request a speedy trial considering the means she used to murder her child? Sick baby killing bitch.

twinkletoe wrote:“I’m starving for this trial to start,” she said, asking DiMango to impanel a jury immediately.

Shades of Casey Anthony. How could she use this term to request a speedy trial considering the means she used to murder her child? Sick baby killing bitch.

---Reminds me of ESOTD's, "I feel she's close to home" statement. You wouldn't believe how close!!!

A former ACS worker charged in the horrific starvation death of a
4-year-old Brooklyn girl is a victim to be pitied, too, his lawyer
claimed yesterday. Damon Adams -- hit with the first such
prosecution of a child-protective worker in city history -- is facing
"unjustifiable persecution," his lawyer, Anthony Grandenette, said in
court. Adams has been charged with criminally negligent
homicide along with an Administration for Children's Services colleague
in the death of Marchella Pierce. The little girl was allegedly
starved, force-fed cold-medication pills, bound and beaten to death by
her mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, in the family's Bedford-Stuyvesant
apartment last year.

Adams, 36, is accused of failing to make all of the mandated
biweekly visits to the home before the little girl's death Sept. 2 --
and then doctoring his reports afterward to make it appear as if he had.
The other charged former ACS worker, Chereece Bell, 34, allegedly failed to monitor Adams' work. Grandenette told the judge that he plans to try to have the charge
against Adams completely dismissed because it requires proof that Adams
failed to perceive a "substantial and unjustifiable risk" that
Brett-Pierce might kill her child. Given that ACS's
investigation into the mom was based only on the fact that she had
tested positive for marijuana when she gave birth to another child,
Adams wouldn't have had reason to suspect such "risk," the lawyer said. "A prosecution based upon such a proposition is preposterous,"
Grandenette said. "It's quite a leap to go from an allegation of
possible malfeasance to a criminal prosecution." Brett-Pierce
has been charged with the murder of her daughter. Her mother, Loretta
Brett, who slept in the same room where the emaciated Marchella -- who
weighed just 18 pounds -- was allegedly bound to the bars of her crib,
was charged with manslaughter. When the ACS workers were
charged last month, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes said, "Baby Marchella
might be alive today had these ACS workers attended to her case with the
basic levels of care it deserved, or had her grandmother stepped in and
put a stop to the shocking abuse she is charged with facilitating." Grandenette yesterday noted that Hynes was convening a grand jury to
investigate "systemic failures" at ACS in the wake of the girl's death.
He told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango that he should
be allowed to see the minutes from that secret proceeding because the
information could clear his client. DiMango told him to put the request in writing and that she would consider it. Adams is scheduled back in court May 11.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/acs_guy_tot_death_pity_ploy_eLgqvhjr6wRiua9sn4sZkM#ixzz1KIg0QEUe

She was drugged, tied to a bed and died at 4 years of age

May 09, 2011 08:57




New York: She died in September by the ugliest means, weighing an unthinkable 18 pounds, half of what a 4-year-old ought to. She withered in poverty in a home in Brooklyn where the authorities said she had been drugged and often bound to a toddler bed by her mother, having realized a bare thimble's worth of living.

The horrid nature of Marchella Pierce's death produced four arrests. This week, Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, is convening a grand jury to explore what he called "evidence of alleged systemic failures" in New York City's child welfare agency, which had monitored the girl's family.

An examination of Marchella's bleak, fleeting life, drawn from interviews with relatives, neighbors and law enforcement authorities, as well as from legal documents, shows that almost nothing went right for her. She entered the world prematurely with underdeveloped lungs. When she was not in a hospital, she was being raised in the uproar of a helter-skelter, combative family struggling with drugs. And when she came under the watch of the city's Administration for Children's Services, an agency remade a number of times after child deaths, her well-being fell to caseworkers who, prosecutors say, essentially ignored the family.

Marchella's household was brought to the agency's attention in late 2009, yet for several months after that it appears no one there knew that the girl, hospitalized for most of her life, even existed. After she was taken home from a nursing home, she was supposed to be looked after by not one but two sets of caseworkers, one set from the city and one from a private agency under contract to the city.

Although Children's Services ended that contract last year, records make clear that it had known for years that the private agency had troubles, including making insufficient visits to families.

Marchella's mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 31, is charged with murder, and her grandmother, Loretta Brett, 56, with manslaughter. Both are in jail awaiting trial. Damon Adams, 37, a Children's Services caseworker, and his supervisor, Chereece Bell, 34, are charged with criminally negligent homicide; it is thought to be the first time that city child welfare workers have been incriminated in a death. Prosecutors said that Mr. Adams had not made required visits to the family and lied about it, and that Ms. Bell had failed to supervise him. Both have left the agency.

All four have said they are innocent. None would comment for this article.

Other relatives of Marchella are dismayed about what happened to her. "It's wrong," the child's great-aunt, Levonnia Parnell, said. "That's not a child that asked to be here. No child deserves what she got. She got a nightmare."

The Marcy Houses public housing project in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, is where Marchella's parents grew up and where their futures seemed to freeze.

Her great-grandmother Leola Brown lived in a jam packed apartment with her daughters, Loretta and Martha, and eventually Martha's two children and Loretta's daughter, Carlotta. Martha, a nurse, died young of cancer. Husbands and fathers were absent.

Loretta Brett and Carlotta, both wafer-thin, were known as truculent people with fiery tempers. Neighbors said they regularly smoked marijuana and crack. The police arrested Carlotta twice for criminal possession of marijuana and once for assault.

"Carlotta was a troublemaker," a neighbor, Evelyn Rizzo, said of Marchella's mother. "You'd look at her and that was enough to make trouble."

She said Ms. Brett-Pierce once threw a padlock at her, hitting her in the face. Another neighbor said in a police report that Ms. Brett had punched her while Ms. Brett-Pierce smashed her with a bat.

"They were just evil," said Elizabeth Soto, who also lived in the building.

Ms. Brett cut her in the head with a razor blade, she said. When Ms. Soto was pregnant, she said, Ms. Brett-Pierce threatened "to give me an abortion."

The police were called several times, and Ms. Soto said she got an order of protection against the two women.

Ms. Brett-Pierce listed herself on her MySpace page as a model and an entrepreneur, but relatives said she never worked. Years ago, she began dating Tyrone Pierce, who lived in a companion building. In 1996, at 16, he was arrested twice on drug charges.

Antagonized neighbors finally began a petition to have the Bretts kicked out. And the Bretts had another problem: The lease was in Leola Brown's name, and she died in 2001.

Court papers say Ms. Brett and Ms. Brett-Pierce forged Leola's name on documents after she was dead, to try to claim the apartment. In 2005, the New York City Housing Authority evicted them.

They moved nearby, and then to a third-floor apartment on Madison Street, also in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Mr. Pierce, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to robbery in 1998 after being accused of a string of thefts as well as drug possession. In June 2004, he was released from prison on parole, which he violated several months later by going to South Carolina for his mother's funeral without permission. Returned to prison, he was in a cell when his son was born. He got out in September 2005. Soon, Ms. Brett-Pierce was again pregnant, with twins.

The Longest Odds

Marchella weighed 1 pound 4 ounces when she was born, prematurely, on April 3, 2006. A relative recalls thinking she was about the size of a one-liter Pepsi bottle. A twin sister, born first, died. Her name was Miracle.

Marchella had a fluty whisper of a voice. Too fragile for the outside world, she lived amid a swirl of doctors and nurses, shuffled among at least six health care facilities. To help her breathe, she had a tracheal tube, which required regular cleaning.

In mid-2009, in final preparation for family life, she entered the Northwoods Rehabilitation and Extended Care Facility at Hilltop, near Schenectady, N.Y., about 170 miles from Brooklyn. For years, the State Health Department had faulted it for myriad violations, including neglect and medication errors. In 2007, regulators put Northwoods on a federal watch list of homes with persistent serious problems. It was in bankruptcy until a new owner bought it last summer.

Marchella's parents visited her and told relatives they got training at Northwoods to care for her. Ms. Brett-Pierce would take a cab,for $130 each way. "She took cabs everywhere," Shaquanna Parnell, her sister-in-law, said. "That was her."

By then, the parents had separated. Ms. Brett-Pierce was also pregnant with her third child.

The household was anything but peaceful. "They fought a lot," Ms. Parnell, a school crossing guard, said. Ms. Brett-Pierce, furious that Mr. Pierce did not help financially, would refuse to let him see his son, Ms. Parnell said.

"She would call me and leave messages on my machine, 'I'm going to hurt him,' " Ms. Parnell said, adding, "Carlotta talked a lot of mouth."

On February 9, 2009, Mr. Pierce called the police, saying his wife would not let him get his clothes. When they arrived he was gone. That October, the authorities said, she called the police about him, saying he had slapped her. The police said she had a cut inside her lip. He was gone when they arrived. They returned several times but did not find him.

Mr. Pierce, 31, would not comment for this article. After Marchella's death, he said he knew nothing of her being abused.

In November 2009, the family came to the attention of the child protection agency. Ms. Brett-Pierce gave birth to another son and tested positive for drugs. The case was assigned to the Child Development Support Corporation; since 1987, it had had a contract to furnish preventive services to at-risk Brooklyn families. Ms. Brett-Pierce was enrolled in drug treatment but was far from compliant. And according to Children's Services, the private agency never made anything near the specified number of visits to the home.

On December 7, the police stopped by Madison Street again, following up on the October assault complaint.

Ms. Brett-Pierce would not let them in, but they found Mr. Pierce outside and arrested him. It is unclear what happened to the case, but he served no jail time.

Police protocol is to notify the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment when domestic abuse occurs and children are in the home. The police did not do so, because, they said, they were unaware there were children in the home.

Two months later, on February 9, 2010, after 10 months at Northwoods, Marchella was discharged. It is not clear if the nursing home knew that the parents were feuding and that the mother was a drug user being monitored by Children's Services. Both Children's Services and the private agency said they doubted they knew then that Marchella even existed; she was still in the nursing home when the complaint about her mother's drug use came in, and it is not known whether caseworkers had compiled a full family history.

And so a girl weighing a slight 26 pounds entered the chaotic world of her mother to begin the final sequence in a life that had had no good ones.

The Madison Street apartment was cramped. One bedroom was used for storage. Ms. Brett-Pierce shared another with her two sons. Marchella slept with her grandmother in the third. Ms. Brett-Pierce's cousins took the living room.

Things quickly fell apart. A month after Marchella came home, Ms. Brett-Pierce took her to the hospital because the breathing tube had malfunctioned. Doctors found the mother oddly insouciant, and she refused to be taught how to tend the tube. A call was made to the child abuse registry.

Children's Services sent an investigator to the home, about the only action it found appropriate in a blistering post-mortem investigation of its actions in the case. The mother was reported to be hostile and in need of evaluation.

The agency assigned the family to one of its own caseworkers, Mr. Adams, who had joined it in 2006. He was a graduate of Tufts University, where he studied psychology and childhood development and was a star athlete. For the next three months, both he and the Child Development Support Corporation were supposed to be looking out for Marchella.

In 2005, the city had put the support corporation on a watch list for poor performance, and the next year the city gave it a "needs improvement" rating. In March 2008, an audit by the city comptroller found it made insufficient visits to families and did not test parents in substance abuse treatment.

The corporation's contract expired at the end of 2008. Despite the negative audit, Children's Services renewed the contract to June 30, 2010.

According to Children's Services, the private agency recommended in May that the Pierce case be closed, saying the home was stable and the children were safe. Yet there was only one visit in which Marchella was reported seen. Moreover, the drug treatment program had told the private agency that Ms. Brett-Pierce continued to abuse drugs and had threatened an employee.

When Ms. Brett-Pierce tested positive again for marijuana, Children's Services decided to keep the case open.

Marcia Rowe-Riddick, the executive director of the support corporation, said it felt its work was improving. But in April 2010, when the city announced new contracts, it was not allowed to bid because of "performance issues."

Ms. Rowe-Riddick said that Children's Services had the records from the Brett-Pierce case and that she did not know whether her agency had done anything wrong. Those assigned to the case, she said, are gone, laid off after the city contract ended.

John B. Mattingly, the Children's Services commissioner, declined to be interviewed for this article, saying it was inappropriate with the pending grand jury inquiry.

In the Madison Street home, drugs remained common. In June, Loretta Brett was arrested for possession of marijuana; she had four prior arrests, including ones for robbery and assault.

By July 1, Mr. Adams was the only caseworker for Marchella's family. Colleagues said that he was diligent and that caseworkers juggled impossible workloads. They said they were forced to assign their own priorities and decide which households to visit and which to skip. "You ask yourself, if I don't do a visit, will this child die?" said Kelly Mares, a city caseworker supportive of Mr. Adams and his supervisor, Ms. Bell. "That's horrible. But that's what we have to do. The truth is any child can die if you don't make a visit."

The arrests have made things worse, she said. "I don't know how to do this job," she said. "We're terrified."

Children's Services, in its own investigation, said it was "questionable" that Mr. Adams had ever seen the family. After the child's death, the agency said, Mr. Adams documented visits he supposedly had made, and Ms. Bell documented meetings she said she had had with Mr. Adams. Ms. Bell had been with the agency 12 years, a married mother of two young children who was working on a double graduate degree.

Her lawyer said Ms. Bell had wanted Mr. Adams transferred because his work was substandard.

Mr. Adams, his lawyer said, knew of no transfer plans.

Relatives of Marchella said the girl had spent much of the time with her grandmother, Ms. Brett. As for Ms. Brett-Pierce, "she would shop, shop, shop," Shaquanna Parnell said.

Marchella kept losing weight. "She was thin but she didn't seem like a difficult child," said Keyba Wright, a sister of Mr. Pierce. She had trouble with solids, and Ms. Brett-Pierce sometimes fed her liquid nutrition products.

Levonnia Parnell, the great-aunt, invited Ms. Brett-Pierce and her children to a party in Harlem last July for her own son's high school graduation. It was the last time she saw Marchella. She wrapped the child in her arms.

She said Marchella's bones were visible through her flesh. She recalled, "People said, What happened to her?"

Twine on the Bedposts

Carlotta Brett-Pierce called 911 a little after 7 a.m. last Sept. 2 to say her daughter was unresponsive, her hands cold.

When an ambulance arrived, Marchella was dead. The police found marijuana and crack in the apartment, and signs of a horrifying existence.

Twine was knotted to the child's bedposts. Ligature marks scarred her ankles.

The authorities said Loretta Brett, the grandmother, told them Marchella had been tied up for part of each day for months, though Ms. Brett's lawyer denied she had said this. The girl had multiple bruises suggesting beatings, which prosecutors say both mother and grandmother inflicted. Blood speckled the wall and a video case the police fished out of the trash.

Prosecutors said Ms. Brett-Pierce had starved Marchella, force-fed her antihistamines and beaten her with the video case and a belt. Ms. Brett-Pierce told an officer she had tied Marchella to the bed because she was "wild" and would wake up at night to get food.

The coroner ruled the death a homicide and ascribed it to child abuse syndrome involving drug poisoning, blunt impact injuries and malnutrition.

Marchella's brothers, who were in good health, were taken by the authorities. Before her arrest, Ms. Brett, the grandmother, tried to gain custody, but she tested positive for marijuana.

Mr. Pierce is not working. Relatives say he never did. Since leaving prison in 2005, he has had 10 more arrests, including one in February for driving without a license and one in March for marijuana possession. He lives in Brooklyn with a girlfriend, a home health care aide who has several children.

Despite his instability and persistent arrests, he hopes to get custody of Marchella's brothers, now 6 and 1. They are with a foster family. He sees them one hour a week. At a recent hearing, his lawyer told the judge that Mr. Pierce wanted more time with them. A representative for the boys said that the older son had been asked and did not want to see his father longer -- that an hour a week was enough.

Woman accused of starving 4-year-old barred from court
By WILLIAM J. GORTA
Last Updated: 6:16 PM, September 14, 2011

The Brooklyn woman accused of starving and beating her 4-year-old daughter to death — and getting two ACS workers jammed up along the way — was briefly barred from returning to court today after copping an attitude with the judge.

Carlotta Brett-Pierce, who has already had several verbal dustups with Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango, got tossed from her upcoming trial because she made disrespectful faces at DiMango and refused to sign an order of protection that the judge had just renewed.

“For the past year I been signing that,” said Brett-Pierce, who has complained bitterly about not seeing her other children. “I’m not signing it.”

DiMango twice asked Brett-Pierce to “please sign the form” before showing her the door.

“If she refuses to sign the order of protection . . . there’s no point for her to come to court,” DiMango said, adding that Brett-Pierce has “failed to cooperate, speaks out in court when she feels like it and is making faces – which I’ve ignored.”

DiMango eventually relented after Alan Stutman, Brett-Pierce’s lawyer, went downstairs to the holding cells and convinced his client to comply.

“In the calmness and tranquility of the pens, she did sign,” Stutman told DiMango.

“You are quite the persuasive attorney, Mr. Stutman,” the jurist replied.

Prosecutors revealed that Brett-Pierce and her mother, Loretta Brett, who is charged with manslaughter, had lengthy jailhouse conversations about the case that included admissions about acts against the child, assault, drug use and the weight of the victim, Marchella Brett-Pierce, who weighed just 18 pounds when she died in September 2010.

“We were talking about the charges – these ridiculous charges. Yes,” Brett-Pierce blurted out.

The two ACS workers, caseworker Damon Adams and his supervisor Chereece Bell, were also in court to try and have the criminally negligent homicide charges against them thrown out.

Lawyers Anthony Grandenette and Joshua Horowitz argued that the ACS workers’ inaction did not create the risk of death.

DiMango said she would rule on their motion next month.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/woman_accused_of_starving_year_old_Sxzw8U4SaSRQV6n9hwQ0GJ

Brooklyn jurors today will begin reliving the horrific details in the
death of an emaciated little girl whose child-abuse case appalled the
city.
The murder trial of accused monster mom Carlotta
Brett-Pierce is set to open in Brooklyn Supreme Court, where jurors will
hear how she allegedly strapped her tiny daughter, Marchella
Brett-Pierce, to a bed and denied her food and water, leaving her skin
and bones.
The 4-year-old weighed just 18.9 pounds — about half
the size of a normal girl her age — when her battered body was found
inside her family’s dingy Madison Street apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant
in September 2010.
She was suffering from child-abuse syndrome,
including drug poisoning, blunt-impact injuries, malnutrition and
dehydration, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Marchella’s
6-year-old brother, Tymel, may be a key witness at his mother’s trial,
where he is expected to testify about seeing his mom smack his sister
with a belt and jam pills down her throat.



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/mom_on_trial_in_kid_slay_horror_cSVpvzBOC5uKmRZoCEKubK#ixzz1sDGqcINK

The mother and grandmother of a 4-year-old found starved, battered and drugged went on trial Monday in the girl's death.
Carlotta Brett-Pierce and her mother, Loretta Brett, have pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter, respectively, in the death of Marchella Pierce.
The girl was found dead tied to a bed, and weighed 18 pounds, nearly
half the weight of an average 4-year-old. They say she died from
battered child syndrome.
Brett-Pierce's attorney has
said the woman was a good mother. Brett's attorney said the grandmother
was a caregiver and had tried to raise the children in the home, and
didn't know about the abuse. Two juries are hearing the case.
Two child welfare workers
assigned to Marchella's case also have been charged and are awaiting
trial; prosecutors said their negligence contributed to the girl's
demise. They have pleaded not guilty, saying they are being blamed for
crimes they didn't commit.
The Administration for
Children's Services became involved with the family after Brett-Pierce
gave birth to a boy who tested positive for drugs. Marchella had been
born premature with underdeveloped lungs and had serious trouble
breathing.
She had a breathing tube in
her throat and was allowed home for the first time from the hospital in
February 2011, when she weighed 26 pounds. By the time of her death,
she had wasted away. She had been tied to her bed for days, beaten and
had up to 30 adult doses of Benadryl and 60 doses of Claritin in her
system, prosecutors said.
After her death, the child
welfare agency announced it was enacting a series of changes to improve
how it handles families with complex medical issues. The City Council
also guaranteed $13.6 million in funding for services aimed at
preventing abuse and neglect.
The girl's death harkened
back to the 2006 case of Nixzmary Brown, a 7-year-old who died of abuse
and malnourishment under the noses of her teachers and ACS workers.
No caseworkers were charged in that case, but the agency also undertook a series of similar changes,
including adding more funding and implementing a new case tracking
system. Welfare workers have said they remain overwhelmed with cases.
Brooklyn State Supreme
Court Judge Patricia DiMango is presiding over the current trial, and
also presided over the trial for Nixzmary's mother, who was convicted
and is serving a prison sentence of up to 43 years. Nixzmary's
stepfather is serving 29 years on a manslaughter conviction for
delivering the fatal blow.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Battered-Drugged-Starved-Girl-Mother-Trial-Manslaughter-Murder-Carlotta-Brett-Pierce-147632705.html

April 19, 2012 4:59 PM

Boy, 6, testifies in death of 4-year-old sister, Marchella Pierce, who weighed 18 pounds when she died

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - The 6-year-old brother of a 4-year-old New York City girl who weighed less than 18 pounds when she died testifed in the murder case against his mother Thursday.

Tymel Pierce spoke from a closed-circuit TV in another part of the Brooklyn court while jurors watched.

The boy's mother, 30-year-old Carlotta Brett-Pierce, is charged with in the death of her daughter, Marchella Pierce.

The girl's grandmother, Loretta Brett, is also on trial in her death. Both women have pleaded not guilty.

Tymel Pierce said his sister rarely ate or was fed.

According to the New York Post, the 6-year-old said Thursday that he never saw his mother beat his sister.

Marchella was found dead in September 2010. She was tied to her bed, beaten, drugged and starved, prosecutors said.

At the time of her death, prosecutors said her stomach contained one kernel of corn.

Complete coverage of the death of Marchella Pierce on Crimesider

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57417248-504083/boy-6-testifies-in-death-of-4-year-old-sister-marchella-pierce-who-weighed-18-pounds-when-she-died/

these "women" need to b punished. even if a child has health problems its no excuse for her to b starved to death.

The grandmother of a 4-year-old Brooklyn girl who died in 2010 after
being battered and starved was found guilty of manslaughter on Friday.


A jury found the grandmother, Loretta Brett, guilty of the most serious charges in the death of the child, Marchella Pierce, and she faces up to 15 years in prison.

The girl’s mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, was convicted of murder on Wednesday by a separate jury. She faces up to life in prison. Both women are scheduled to be sentenced on June 6.

Ms. Brett’s lawyer, Julie Clark, said she planned to appeal and noted
that her client had been acquitted of an assault charge.

Two caseworkers for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services have also been charged. They have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said the girl weighed about half what a healthy 4-year-old
should. When she was found in September 2010, she had been tied to her
bed, been beaten and had dozens of adult doses of Claritin and Benadryl in her system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/12/nyregion/grandmother-is-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-death-of-marchella-pierce.html

A Brooklyn woman was convicted of murder on Wednesday in the
death of her 4-year-old daughter, who had been tied to her bed with a jump rope, beaten, drugged and starved.


4-year-old Marchella Pierce weighed just 18.8 pounds
when she died, about half the normal weight for a child her age.
Jurrors deliberated for less than an hour before finding the mother,
Carlotta Brett-Pierce, guilty of the most serious charge in the 2010
death of her child, Marchella Pierce, in a case that shined new light on cracks in New York City’s child welfare system.

As she was led away, Ms. Brett-Pierce said she had been falsely charged.
Her lawyer, Alan Stutman, said that he would appeal and that the case
was more about a system that failed a mother who needed help.

Ms. Brett-Pierce faces a possible life term in prison. She is scheduled
to be sentenced June 6 by Justice Patricia M. DiMango of State Supreme
Court in Brooklyn, who has presided over other prominent child-abuse cases and is known for giving stiff sentences.

A jury is expected to begin deliberations on Thursday in a manslaughter
case against Ms. Brett-Pierce’s mother, Loretta Brett, in Marchella’s
death. Two caseworkers for the city’s Administration for Children’s Services have also been charged,
making them among the first social workers in the country to be held
criminally responsible for the death of a child on their watch. They
have pleaded not guilty.

Ms. Brett-Pierce was on the radar of the city’s child welfare system
after she gave birth to a boy in 2009 who tested positive for drugs. She
was in drug counseling, but no abuse cases were opened, and the agency
admitted it did not do enough to help her or her three children.

In 2006, Marchella was born premature and with severe medical problems,
according to testimony, and she spent most of her life in hospitals. She
was finally sent home with her mother and grandmother in February 2010.
Seven months later, she was dead, her ribs visible through bruised,
scarred and scratched skin. When the police found her on Sept. 2, 2010,
she had 60 adult doses of Claritin
and 30 doses of Benadryl in her system, a medical examiner said. Her
stomach contained one kernel of corn. She weighed 18.8 pounds, half the
weight of an average child her age.

“To me, at the time, it didn’t look bad,” Ms. Brett-Pierce said while
testifying in the trial. “She looked like a child who wasn’t sitting on
her booty in the hospital all day. She was outside running around for
the first time in her life.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/nyregion/in-marchella-pierce-death-mother-is-convicted-of-murder.html

i realize that there r cases where cps do fail the children under their supervision, but this case doesnt feel that way. brett-pierce seems like a selfish, mean woman to me. ppl make their own choices and should b held responsible for them.