An 80-year-old judge is an unlikely viral video sensation, but somehow Municipal Court Judge Frank Caprio has been winning hearts and clicks on Facebook with a mix of compassion, humor and a rotating cast of the poor souls who have been ticketed in Providence.
Videos featuring the kind-hearted judge have now reached hundreds of millions of views.
Caprio calls children to come up on the bench to help pass judgement on their parents and makes high-school students promise to attend college in return for dropping tickets.
He works out payment plans for people who are struggling. Occasionally he loses patience, especially when he thinks the person is trying to give him “a snow job.” He even gets laughs when he turns down pleas for a break.
The judge thinks he has gone viral because people have lost faith in government and are accustomed to institutions coming down hard without regard for personal circumstances.
“I think I should take into consideration whether somebody is sick and whether their mother died and whether they have kids who are starving,” Caprio said. “I don’t wear a badge under my robe. I wear a heart under my robe.”
One video features a woman who had racked up tickets and fines of US$400. She broke down as she described trying to pick up the pieces after her son was stabbed to death.
“I’m just really having a tough time, your honor,” she told the judge through tears, as Caprio listened attentively.
“I don’t think anyone in their lifetime would ever want to experience that,” he told her.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world. I feel so empty and lost,” she said in response.
He dismissed the tickets.
The case has been viewed nearly 170 million times on Facebook and given subtitles in nine languages.
Commenters from around the world weigh in on the videos about the judge’s tenderhearted approach and the US court system, something Caprio mentions with pride.
“I may be adding just a little bit more understanding toward the United States’ system of government and how it works, that we are a decent, peace-loving people, and not how we’re being portrayed in other parts of the world,” Caprio said.
He learned his compassion from his father, an immigrant from Italy and fruit peddler-turned-milkman, who would pay milk bills for customers who fell behind, even though his own family lived in a cold-water apartment with few resources of their own.
Caprio taught high-school history to support himself while he attended law school at Boston’s Suffolk University at night. After building a law practice, he became a part-time judge on the municipal court in 1985, hearing mostly noncriminal matters.
A few years later, his brother, Joe Caprio, began filming the proceedings, calling the show Caught in Providence.
It has aired locally since then, but Frank Caprio’s fame took off after shorter clips started appearing on Facebook last year, posted by Joe’ production company and Sociable, a Providence-based social media company.
“Uncle Joe” as he is known to online fans, said his brother is the same off camera as on, and he has a good message for the US and the world.
“He’s like a father figure to the world,” Joe Caprio said. “He’s a senior gentleman. When he says something, they listen.”
People who come into court are given the chance to opt out of being filmed. However, most did not seem to mind, including Judy Barros, who has watched the show for years and appeared before him twice.
“If you have a problem, he listens,” she said, shortly after he dismissed a ticket for parking in a no-parking zone, even though she had a disability placard.
When he is not on the bench, the judge has a busy law firm, owns an oceanfront restaurant and keeps up an active social life as the head of a sprawling family.
A former wife of US President Donald Trump, Marla Maples, stayed in Frank Caprio’s guesthouse with mutual friends earlier this month. The following night, he had dinner with talk show host Regis Philbin.
Singer Paula Abdul is considered a member of the family after she started dating his son John six years ago.
Another son, Frank T. Caprio, was the US Democratic nominee for Rhode Island governor in 2010.
Back in the courtroom, Frank Caprio said he is not trying to change the world, but he is trying to do his part.
“In the final analysis, I’m only doing what my father taught me to do,” Caprio said. “I’m following his advice, and it resonated in the world.”
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