Marchella Pierce 4, Found dead, arms & legs tied to crib.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/brooklyn/bound-4-year-old-found-dead-in-crib-20100902
Bound 4-Year-Old Found Dead In Crib
September 2, 2010

The NYPD is questioning the mother of a 4-year-old girl that was found dead in a crib, with her arms and legs tied to the crib with twine Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Sources tell Fox 5 News that the woman has been investigated in the past for child neglect. The results of those investigations are private.

The sources say the girl might have needed to be restrained to receive oxygen for some sort of medical condition.

Sources told The Post that it appeared that Marchella Pierce appeared to have been underdeveloped with undeveloped lungs.  The paper claims that Carlola Pierce's daughter weighed only 15 pounds.

Pierce told investigators she checked on her daughter about 4 a.m. and that she was fine, but says she checked on her again at 6 a.m. and she was unresponsive.

[MuffyBee]

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7646534
Child found dead tied to crib in Brooklyn home
September 2, 2010

BROOKLYN (WABC) -- A sickly four year old girl was discovered dead in her Bushwick, Brooklyn, home, and detectives are questioning her mother and father.

Marchella Pierce. was found unconscious and unresponsive inside the home at 823 Madison Street at around 7:30 a.m.

Marchella was pronounced dead at the scene. She may have been dead for more than three hours, according to police.
Her arms and legs were tied to a crib, with twine and a jump rope.

Police also said she had trauma to her arms, ankles and wrists.

An oxygen tank was next to the bed, but was not connected to her mouth. It appears she had a prior illness and was being treated at home.

Her mother, 30-year-old Carlola Pierce, and father are being questioned by detectives at the 81 Precinct.

Marchella weighed 15 pounds at the time of her death.

The family had a prior history with the city's Administration for Children's Services.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/national/dead-four-year-old-girl-weighing-15-pounds-found-tied-to-crib-25-ncx-20100902
Four-year-old girl weighing 15 pounds found dead, tied to crib
September 2, 2010

(NY Post) - A four-year-old New York City girl who weighed only 15 pounds was found dead Thursday, with her arms and legs tied to a crib with twine.

Police were questioning the mother of the severely malnourished little girl, Marchella Pierce, law enforcement sources said.

The mom, 30-year-old Carlola Pierce, told police she checked on her daughter at the family's Brooklyn residence at 4:00am local time and she was OK. She checked on her again at 6:00am and found her unconscious. She waited until 7:30am to call authorities, sources said.

When police arrived at the Bedford-Stuyvesant home, they saw that the living area was filthy, sources said.

Marchella, in addition to having her limbs tied to the crib, had trauma to her arms, ankles and wrists, sources said. Next to the bed was an oxygen tank, which was not connected to the dead girl's mouth.

Sources also said that Pierce has two other kids -- a five-year-old son, and a nine-month old son.

Law enforcement sources said that the city Administration for Children's Services had twice previously investigated situations involving the family. Details of those cases were not available.

Sources said it appeared that Marchella appeared to have been underdeveloped with undeveloped lungs.

"Her legs are like sticks. You can see her ribs," said a law-enforcement source."It looks like she starved to death."

[2NJSons_Mom]

A painfully malnourished 4-year-old girl was found dead in a filthy Brooklyn apartment Thursday - and cops found evidence she had been bound to her bed.

Marchella Pierce weighed just 15 pounds and had bruises and marks on her ankles that suggested they might have been tied with twine, police sources said.

Yet the cause of her death was a mystery, and police were unsure if they were investigating a horrific case of child neglect or the tragic death of a sickly child who spent most of her life in the hospital.

Cops were questioning the girl's mother, Carlotta Pierce, 30, her father, Tyrone Pierce, 30, and her grandmother, Loretta Brett.

Police sources said narcotics were found in the Madison St. apartment, but charges had yet to be filed. The NYPD's top spokesman, Paul Browne, said investigators are awaiting results of an autopsy, scheduled for Friday.

"My wife is a wonderful mother. I've never seen her hurt her kids," said Tyrone Pierce, who is separated.

He said Marchella was born prematurely at barely more than a pound. Her lungs were underdeveloped and she was in hospitals from birth until this February.

Doctors gave her a tracheotomy, making a hole in her neck so she could breathe with a tube.

Her father said a plastic insert for the hole was too small, causing problems, and that Marchella only recently began eating solid food through her mouth.

Cops were troubled when they responded to a 911 call Thursday. The child was on the mother's bed and inside the messy room was a bed for Marchella. Two lengths of twine were attached to the rails at each end, cops said.

"There were marks on each of the child's ankles consistent with her being tied up with that twine," a police source said.

Tyrone Pierce said he knew nothing about his daughter being restrained.

"Maybe it was to hold the bed together," he said.

Police questioned why Carlotta Pierce - who calls herself "a proud parent" on MySpace - waited 90 minutes to call for help.

She told cops she checked on her daughter about 4 a.m., and she was fine, the sources said.

She said she found her daughter unresponsive at 6 a.m. and did not call 911 until 7:30 a.m. because she was performing CPR, cops said.

Carlotta's two sons, ages 6 and 9 months, are in ACS custody.

ACS has investigated the family twice, police sources said.

The first case involved allegations Pierce had marijuana in her system when Marchella was born.

In the other, ACS assigned the Child Development Support Corp. to aid the parents after a report they were overwhelmed. The agency didn't visit the family two to three times a week, as required, the city source said.

But CDSC's executive director, Marcia Rowe-Riddick, denied the allegations and said the organization's contract expired at the end of June.

jauinger@nydailynews.com

With Erin Einhorn



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/02/2010-09-02_severely_malnourished_girl_4_found_dead_tied_to_crib_in_mothers_brooklyn_apartme.html#ixzz0yNta24R1

[Sister]

Will anyone claim responsibility or is it always someone else's fault?????
When I find that "someone" . . .

[Gizzie]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/03/2010-09-03_mother_of_4yearold_marchella_pierce_found_dead_and_weighing_just_15_pounds_arres.html

Mother of 4-year-old found dead, yells, 'I didn't kill my baby!' as she's walked from station



Friday, September 3rd 2010, 5:43 PM

The mother of the malnourished 4-year-old found dead in a squalid Brooklyn apartment was hit with assault charges Friday - but she denied murdering her child.

"I did not kill my baby!" Carlotta Pierce, 30, said during her "perp walk" outside the 81st precinct stationhouse.

When asked if her arrest was all a mistake, she answered, "Yes, yes it is."

An autopsy of Marchella Pierce, who weighed just 15 pounds at the time of her death Thursday, was inconclusive, officials said.

Her mother could face a murder rap if the girl's death is ruled a homicide after further testing, the sources said.

The child had bruises on her ankles that suggested she could have been tied to her bed with twine, police sources said.

Pierce told investigators Marchella was recently hurt in a fall, but the bruises on the child's arms and legs were not consistent with those kinds of injuries, the sources said.

That inconsistency - as well as witness accounts - led authorities to charge Pierce with second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

Additionally, Pierce was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance after small amounts of crack cocaine and marijuana were found in her filthy Bedford-Stuyvesant home.

Marchella, who was born prematurely and barely weighed a pound at birth, had underdeveloped lungs and battled health problems throughout her sad life.

Pierce's two sons, ages 9 months and 6, are in the custody of the city Administration for Children's Services.

ACS has investigated the family twice before and assigned the Child Development Support Corp. to aid the parents, officials said. When CDSC's contract expired June 30, ACS resumed responsibility for the case.

"Workers visited the family throughout the summer," said agency spokeswoman Laura Postiglione. "ACS is continuing a full investigation of the case."


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/03/2010-09-03_mother_of_4yearold_marchella_pierce_found_dead_and_weighing_just_15_pounds_arres.html#ixzz0yaYFh2lY

[Gizzie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/nyregion/04girl.html

Mother of Dead 4-Year-Old Will Face Charges of Drug Possession and Assault
By RAY RIVERA and AL BAKER
Published: September 4, 2010

The mother of a 4-year-old girl who weighed 15 pounds when she was found dead in her family’s apartment this week has been arrested on charges that include assault, endangering the welfare of a child and drug possession, the authorities said Friday.

The mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30, told the police that she sometimes tied her daughter, Marchella Pierce, to a small bed, using twine to bind her, according to a law enforcement official.

When officers found the girl’s body inside her Brooklyn apartment on Thursday, marks from the twine were visible on her ankles, though investigators believed that Ms. Brett-Pierce also tied her daughter’s wrists because the lengths of twine on the headboard and foot board were identical.

The police also found unexplained bruises on her body, a law enforcement official said.

“The mother had made reference to the child, at one point, falling down,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because the investigation was continuing. “The bruising is not consistent with that.”

Investigators were awaiting further testing by the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of death. Initial autopsy reports were inconclusive, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office. Ms. Borakove said further studies, including forensic testing, investigations and an analysis of medical records, would be done.

Ms. Brett-Pierce was in custody and likely to be arraigned by Saturday, law enforcement officials said.

 

[2NJSons_Mom]

Carlotta Pierce, mom of dead, malnourished child, force-fed child sleeping pills: prosecutor
BY Erica Pearson AND Larry Mcshane
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, September 4th 2010, 5:50 PM

 
 A malevolent mom lashed her 18-pound daughter to a bed after the morbidly malnourished girl made a mess while grabbing a midnight snack, authorities said Saturday.

Carlotta Pierce, after tying down the frail 4-year-old, force-fed her sleeping pills to halt her "wild" behavior - raiding the family fridge, said Brooklyn prosecutor Tracey Downing.

"The mother tied up the child because she would get up in the night and eat food ... and make a mess," Downing said at a hearing.

A witness told police that Pierce had battered tiny Marchella Pierce with a belt and a plastic video case, drawing blood from the helpless girl, according to a criminal complaint.

The 30-year-old mother - ordered held yesterday on $300,000 bail - "did repeatedly strike Marchella Pierce about the body," the complaint charged.

The witness told cops that the doomed daughter suffered bruises from her head to her legs, most likely from blunt force trauma, the complaint said.
But it was the girl's "state of malnutrition" that put her at "a grave risk of death," the complaint charged.

Pierce, wearing a peach-colored hooded sweatshirt and jeans, smiled at her mom and brother when she was led into the courtroom.

She has insisted on her innocence, telling reporters on Friday, "I did not kill my baby!"

But officials provided chilling new details about the girl's final hours in a squalid Brooklyn apartment.

On Sept. 1, the day before the little girl's death, Pierce grew angry with Marchella and tied her down on the bed over the late-night snacks.

The witness told police that Pierce "repeatedly beat the child" - and a bloody video box was found in the garbage at the apartment.

The suspect is currently charged with assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child after an initial autopsy on her daughter was inconclusive.

Police sources said an upgrade in charges was possible as the investigation continues.

"She's not charged with homicide," said court-appointed defense lawyer George Sheinberg. "The autopsy did not indicate any kind of trauma ... at this point it is extremely inconclusive."

epearson@nydailynews.com



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/04/2010-09-04_carlotta_pierce_mom_of_deadmalnourished_child_forcefed_child_sleeping_pills_pros.html#ixzz0yWhdOo9B

[Sister]

This is appalling -- what a POS!!!

[cookie]

This is appalling -- what a POS!!!

my exact feelings Sister!!!

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/nyregion/09girl.html
Audit Assailed Group Hired to Aid Family in Abuse Case
September 8, 2010

The nonprofit organization hired by the city to provide preventive services to the family of a bruised and severely malnourished 4-year-old girl who was found dead in her apartment in Brooklyn last week had been the subject of a scathing city audit in 2008.

The organization, the Child Development Support Corporation, did not adequately monitor its cases, did not always make the required number of contacts with families required by its city contract, and could not consistently show that parents with substance abuse problems were periodically tested for drugs, according to the audit, which was conducted by the city controller’s office.

The audit also said the group could not provide evidence that some of its staff members were properly qualified or had been screened for criminal history.

As a result, the audit said, there was “no reasonable assurance” that the group “helped families obtain the preventive services needed to become stabilized so that the children are not placed in foster care.”

The audit may help explain why the Administration for Children’s Services chose not to renew the organization’s contract when it expired at the end of June. Immediately after the death of the girl, Marchella Pierce, on Sept. 2, Children’s Services accused the organization of making “far less” than the required two to three visits a week to the girl’s family. The organization has disputed that.

But the audit does not answer a number of other questions about the girl’s death. Among them: Why did Children’s Services assign the case of such a medically fragile child to an organization with known problems in the first place? Why didn’t the agency assign the family to a new service provider after June 30, given the girl’s profound medical problems and given apparent concerns with the mother’s drug use? And how did Children’s Services itself miss signs of neglect and abuse in the home after it took over the case when the organization’s contract ended?

The girl had been in the hospital most of her life and needed the help of a breathing tube when she returned home for good in February. She weighed 18 pounds when police found her dead at her family’s apartment in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Prosecutors in Brooklyn have charged the girl’s mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, with second-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a child, unlawful imprisonment and reckless endangerment. Prosecutors say Ms. Brett-Pierce struck the girl with a belt and a video cassette case and admitted tying her to a bed at night to keep her from taking food from the refrigerator and making a mess.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is expected to unseal a grand jury indictment against Ms. Brett-Pierce on Thursday. She is being held in $300,000 bail. Investigators are awaiting further tests by the medical examiner’s office to determine the cause of the girl’s death.

Child Development Support Corporation, which promised to take corrective action after the audit was released, did not return calls and an e-mail seeking comment on the findings on Wednesday.

[MuffyBee]

http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/sep/10/public-advocate-opens-probe-death-4-year-old-brooklyn-girl/
Public Advocate Opens Probe Into Death of 4-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl
September 10, 2010



Budget cuts that created pressure to close or shift oversight of child welfare cases may have led to last week's 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 its 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 to 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.

[MuffyBee]

http://gothamist.com/2010/09/10/de_blasio_begins_inquiry_into_malno.php
De Blasio Begins Inquiry Into Malnourished Girl's Death
September 10, 2010

Slumlord-hater and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has begun an official inquiry into the death of Marchella Pierce, the 4-year-old malnourished girl who was found dead last week, and whether the city could have prevented her death.

In a letter to John Mattingly, head of the city's Administration for Children's Services, de Blasio suggests that the decision to cut back preventive services may have contributed to the Pierce's death. "The heartbreaking circumstances surrounding Marchella Pierce's death raise troubling questions about ACS's policies and practices and the possibility of systemic problems that could leave an untold number of children at risk," he wrote. The ACS has accused nonprofit organization Child Development Support Corporation (CDSC) of not adequately monitoring the case.

According to de Blasio, the city's number of active preventive cases fell by more than 2,000 families between April and July; that translates to more than 5,000 fewer children receiving preventive services. During this time, ACS ended its contract with CDSC. De Blasio wants ACS tto go back and review all those cases to determine whether they were closed properly. Yesterday, a Kings County grand jury voted to indict the girl's mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, on second-degree assault charges, with more charges possibly to come.

[MuffyBee]

http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/top_stories/125201/brooklyn-mother-indicted-on-assault-charges-in-wake-of-girl-s-death
(video)
Brooklyn Mother Indicted On Assault Charges In Wake Of Girl's Death
September 9, 2010

A Brooklyn mother was indicted Thursday on assault charges in connection with the death of her four-year-old daughter.

Carlotta Brett-Pierce is charged with second degree assault.

Additional charges are still pending in connection with the death of Marchella Pierce.

Police found Marchella inside her Bedford-Stuyvesant home last week after her mother called 911 to say the girl was unconscious.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they arrested the mother based on the condition of the child's body, which appeared severely underweight with marks on her ankles leading them to believe she had been tied to her bed.

Four lengths of rope were found on a small bed or crib, along with an oxygen mask, in the home.

Marchella's father says she was born premature with serious health problems, including undersized lungs.

Carlotta Brett-Pierce denied killing her daughter.

A judge set her bail at $300,000.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/25/nyregion/25acs.html
Agency Admits Fault in Death of Child
September 24, 2010

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, which was reported on Thursday night by WNBC, 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.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/25/2010-09-25_rip_acs_in_18lb_girls_death.html
Child care advocates rip Administration for Children's Services in death of 18-pound girl
September 25, 2010

Child care advocates blasted the Administration for Children's Services yesterday for failing to check on a severely malnourished 4-year-old Brooklyn girl whose mother is accused of lashing her to a bed.

The ACS suspended two workers after finding they had not visited Marchella Pierce, who weighed just 18 pounds when she died Sept. 2, since June.

"This case raises a whole host of concerns," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. "You would think when a child is this sick there would be tremendous oversight. There was a lot of evidence that there was a problem."

The horrendous lapse in care extended even beyond June, when ACS dismissed a private support group hired to help the family because it, too, failed to adequately monitor the child.

ACS should have given the case higher priority, since Marchella - hospitalized for most of her life - needed a breathing tube and her mother had a drug problem, advocates said. Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30, has been charged with beating the girl with a belt and a video cassette case. She could face a murder rap if the girl's death is ruled a homicide after further testing.

The mother was found to be on drugs last November when she gave birth to a boy and ACS assigned the Child Development Support Corp. a private nonprofit group, to help care for Marchella when she came home from the hospital. CDSC Director Marcia Rowe-Riddick said her group made the required number of visits based on ACS agreements. "We were all very sad to hear the news of Marchella dying," she said.

Stephanie Gindell, associate director of the Citizens' Committee for Children, said, "If the [support group] and the parents couldn't meet the needs, why didn't the case move to ACS' 'medically fragile' program?"

Brett-Pierce's lawyer, George Sheinberg, said, "I don't think anybody ever followed up" after CDSC left in June. "She was a very overwhelmed young woman."

ACS admitted lapses in child protection practices, adding the suspensions "... in no way indicate our investigation is completed," said Michael Fagan, director of communications.

[Sister]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/09/25/2010-09-25_rip_acs_in_18lb_girls_death.html
Child care advocates rip Administration for Children's Services in death of 18-pound girl
September 25, 2010

Child care advocates blasted the Administration for Children's Services yesterday for failing to check on a severely malnourished 4-year-old Brooklyn girl whose mother is accused of lashing her to a bed.

The ACS suspended two workers after finding they had not visited Marchella Pierce, who weighed just 18 pounds when she died Sept. 2, since June.

"This case raises a whole host of concerns," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. "You would think when a child is this sick there would be tremendous oversight. There was a lot of evidence that there was a problem."

The horrendous lapse in care extended even beyond June, when ACS dismissed a private support group hired to help the family because it, too, failed to adequately monitor the child.

ACS should have given the case higher priority, since Marchella - hospitalized for most of her life - needed a breathing tube and her mother had a drug problem, advocates said. Carlotta Brett-Pierce, 30, has been charged with beating the girl with a belt and a video cassette case. She could face a murder rap if the girl's death is ruled a homicide after further testing.

The mother was found to be on drugs last November when she gave birth to a boy and ACS assigned the Child Development Support Corp. a private nonprofit group, to help care for Marchella when she came home from the hospital. CDSC Director Marcia Rowe-Riddick said her group made the required number of visits based on ACS agreements. "We were all very sad to hear the news of Marchella dying," she said.

Stephanie Gindell, associate director of the Citizens' Committee for Children, said, "If the [support group] and the parents couldn't meet the needs, why didn't the case move to ACS' 'medically fragile' program?"

Brett-Pierce's lawyer, George Sheinberg, said, "I don't think anybody ever followed up" after CDSC left in June. "She was a very overwhelmed young woman."

ACS admitted lapses in child protection practices, adding the suspensions "... in no way indicate our investigation is completed," said Michael Fagan, director of communications.

I don't think I have heard of a "Public Advocate" before.  Good for him!!!
Marchella, we are so sorry.

[Nut44x4]

Death leads to probe of NYC child welfare agency

Associated Press - October 8, 2010 5:15 PM ET

NEW YORK (AP) - Brooklyn prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation of the city's child welfare agency and its outside health and social service providers responsible for monitoring the 4-year-old girl who died in September.

District Attorney spokesman Jerry Schmetterer said Friday the office had begun investigating the Administration for Children's Services.

Marchella Pierce's 18-pound body was found Sept. 2. Marks on her ankles and rope discovered on a bed led investigators to believe she had been bound.

The girl's mother faces charges of assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Her attorney didn't immediately return a message.

ACS spokesman Michael Gagan says the agency will cooperate with the investigation.

District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said the 2006 beating death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was a factor in his decision to investigate.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13293918

[Sister]

Perhaps something good will come from this horrible death.
Marchella -- in the arms of the angels.

[Nut44x4]

Brooklyn toddler Marchella Pierce's death is ruled murder; 4-year-old was 18 pounds when found

Saturday, October 30th 2010, 4:00 AM
The death of a frail 4-year-old found in her Brooklyn apartment last month was officially ruled a homicide Friday, officials said.

Marchella Pierce - who was only 18 pounds when her body was found inside her Bedford-Stuyvesant home on Sept. 1 - died from "acute drug poisoning, blunt impact injuries, malnutrition and dehydration," the city's medical examiner said.

And the toddler's mother, Carlotta Pierce, 30 - who has been behind bars on assault charges - could be facing a murder rap.

"The case is under investigation, and additional charges are possible," said a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

Prosecutors said Pierce routinely abused the tiny child and beat her with a belt. She is accused of tying her daughter to a bed and feeding her sleeping pills to stop the girl from getting food out of the refrigerator.

This month, two workers at the city's Administration for Children's Services were suspended without pay for not properly monitoring the child before her death.

A grand jury later demanded records from the agency and a subcontractor.

"We have already begun addressing practice concerns within the child welfare system that were identified as a result of this case," the agency said in a statement.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/10/30/2010-10-30_brooklyn_toddlers_death_is_ruled_murder.html?r=news