Caprice Reid

 

 

 

 

 

Caprice Reid was removed from the care of her mother not because she was abusive or neglectful, but because her baby sitter had left her unattended as an infant. Caprice was placed in foster care with a family that clearly should've not been caring for children. Before being granted custody of Caprice in 1996, the Cokers refused to bathe one group of boys for weeks and dressed their sisters in stained panties and a shirt smeared with food. They adopted another boy, who returned to foster care two years later, complaining of physical abuse. And Betty Coker once threatened to attack Caprice's biological mother in Brooklyn family court in front of a case worker.

 

The last four days of Caprice's life were torture, she was starved, tied to a chair and a bed and beaten repeatedly with a stick by her foster grandmother Betty Coke who was a retired nurse. Caprice’s foster mother Patricia Coker was a home health aide watched her mother administer the beatings and also tied Caprice to a bed at one point.

 

Seven months after Caprice's bruised, dehydrated body was found in the Cokers' home the Administration for Children's Services issued a report showing that Workers for private foster care agencies under contract to the city systematically failed to report abusive foster parents to the authorities, which included the Cokers.