Abuse case exposes cracks in welfare system

When Marchella Pierce was released to her mother's care, she seemed like a happy toddler.

The girl had been born premature and, among her myriad medical problems, had a breathing tube in her throat.

But photos snapped of her while in a rehabilitation facility in Utica depict a smiling, round-faced child. She had been fed through a tube, but in the weeks before she went home, she was learning how to eat soft foods like yogurt, according to testimony in the murder trial of her mother and grandmother. Marchella "didn't understand what hunger felt like," one of her caretakers, Aimee Gordon, testified recently.

Seven months later, 4-year-old Marchella was dead. Each of her ribs was visible through bruised, scarred and scratched skin. 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.

The case exposed fresh cracks in the city's child welfare agency, and the girl's mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, and grandmother Loretta Brett were charged with murder. Prosecutors are expected to wrap their case up this week in the women's trial.

Prosecutors say that instead of taking care of the child, the two women tied her to a bed and drugged her, barely feeding her. She died from battered child's syndrome, Brooklyn prosecutors charged.

"She slowly starved to death," prosecutor Perry Cerrato said in opening statements.

The outcome of the murder trial may have repercussions for the child welfare workers once assigned to it. They were charged with criminally negligent homicide -- among the first cases ever where caseworkers were accused in the death of a child -- and have pleaded not guilty.

Two juries are hearing the case. The trial is before Brooklyn state Supreme Judge Patricia DiMango, who also presided over another high profile child abuse case -- the 2006 death of Nixzmary Brown. The 7-year-old was beaten to death under the noses of child welfare workers. Her mother and stepfather were convicted in her death. That case prompted changes to the Administration for Children's Services that included a new computer system and a cadre of new workers.