The fingerpointing intensified Thursday over the death of an ailing Brooklyn girl who weighed only 18 pounds when she died last month.
Stung by criticism from the city's child welfare agency, a private Brooklyn group entrusted with checking on four-year-old Marchella Pierce until June said it wasn't to blame for her death.
The non-profit Child Development Support Corporation (CDSC) said it made "the required number of visits" to the girl's Bedford Stuyvesant home and that the city was responsible for following up after June 30th.
Bruised and emaciated, Marchella was found dead on September 2nd and her mother, who admitted tying her to the bed for punishment, has been charged with second degree assault and child endangerment.
The city's Administration for Children's Services (ACS) failed Marchella even after CDSC informed them in mid June that her mother, Carlotta Brett-Pierce, tested positive for drugs, said CDSC executive director Marcia Rowe-Riddick.
"Members of the Commissioner's Office were informed in a face-to face meeting also on June 16 2010 by CDSC that Marchella's mother had tested positive for drugs and because of the presence of three children in the home, including Marchella, a child with special medical needs, the Pierce family case should not be closed," said Rowe-Riddick. "Thereafter the Commissioner's office failed to implement any of the additional measures they claim CDSC should have implemented."
"Critical" mistakes plagued oversight of the little girl, ACS Commissioner John Mattingly admitted in testimony to the City Council on Tuesday. But ACS could find no written records of supposed visits to the girl's home after June 30th however it also blasted oversight by CDSC as "woefully inadequate."
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"Clearly Marchella Pierce was a vulnerable child, and as a city, we needed to do more to help her," Mattingly said.
ACS has suspended a case worker and supervisor and said it has tightened record keeping and increased preventive services.
