This week, prosecutors charged three more people, including two Administration for Children's Services case workers, with contributing to the death of Marchella Pierce, the malnourished four-year-old who died last fall, weighing a scant 18 pounds and showing signs of other traumas. It's believed to be the first time in the city’s history that child welfare workers had been charged with homicide in a child’s death. But despite the bad press, Mayor Bloomberg defended the head of the ACS yesterday: "I don't know if the charges are true but I have 100 percent confidence in John Mattingly."
Under questioning from outraged City Council members, Mattingly insisted that budget cuts at ACS had nothing to do with the little girl's death: "We had a worker and a supervisor who had caseloads that are some of the best in the country but did not do their job. Now that's my fault. That's my responsibility but it isn't because we cut their budget."
He was referring to former ACS caseworker Damon Adams, who was indicted for failing to make nearly all of the mandated biweekly visits to Pierce's Bedford-Stuyvesant home, and falsifying ACS records to show he did; and Chereece Bell, his former ACS supervisor, who is accused of failing to properly oversee and monitor Adams' work with Marchella and her family.
Prosecutors said that they have photos of the malnourished girl, autopsy results showing she was drugged, and twine used to tie her to the bed. But the most damning evidence comes from Adams' sloppy computer hacking: authorities said his attempt at record tampering shows that Adams "had an understanding of the nature of his failure to act and the potential consequences for it."
