Judge Frank Caprio, who presides over “Caught in Windfall,” is beloved by viewers around the globe.
And here’s one reason why.
“After I make a call it may well effect someone’s livelihood, their life and their families lives,” Caprio told The Post. “One thing I’ve committed myself to is to treat individuals with respect, compassion and understanding … and I try to put myself within the shoes of the people before me.
“I don’t wear a badge under my robe — I wear a heart.”
Caprio, 86, has morphed right into a social media superstar via “Caught in Windfall,” which began in 1987 on local access television in Windfall, RI and, in 2018, launched in syndication (on Facebook Live and Law & Crime), snaring three Daytime Emmy Award nominations.
There isn’t a studio audience, only the live court proceedings, “so we differ substantially from the opposite court shows,” Caprio said.
Caprio, a Windfall Municipal Court Judge since 1985, has been called “The Nicest Judge within the World” for his empathetic demeanor, amassing over 20 million social media followers and greater than 6 billion video views.
He credits his Italian-immigrant parents — father Antonio and mother Filomena — for instilling life lessons while raising him, older brother Antonio and kid brother Joe in a cold-water flat (sans hot running water) within the Federal Hill section of Windfall.
“My dad was a milkman. He’d wake my brother [Antonio] and I up at 4 o’clock within the morning and say to us, ‘In the event you don’t need to do that for the remainder of your life, you’d higher stay in class and get a university education.’ That never left us,” he said. “His company had a rule that if people didn’t pay their bill after two weeks he was speculated to stop their milk — and I can remember my father saying, ‘In the event that they have kids, I’m not stopping their milk.’
“Repeatedly he would take a dollar or two out of his own pocket to assist them,” he said. “It’s what he taught us — not by his words, but by his actions.”
Caprio has an especially soft spot for youngsters in his courtroom. “It may well be an intimidating experience … and that’s why I bring them up on the bench to participate, and be a frontrunner in the choice,” he said. “Repeatedly I ask them for assist in deciding what penalties, if any, to impose against their parents.
“They offer me wonderful answers and are very honest,” he said. “If I were to yell and scream at everyone within the courtoom, demand payment from their parents (which I do know they can’t afford) and be strict and cold, it will likely traumatize the youngsters for the remainder of their lives.”
Caprio and his wife, Joyce, have been married for 59 years and have five children: Frank, David, Marissa, John and Paul.
Like their father, Frank and David, each lawyers, have served the general public — Frank was General Treasurer of Rhode Island and ran for governor in 2010; David served within the Rhode Island House of Representatives.
In addition they run City Life Productions, which produces “Caught in Windfall.” It’s a family affair; the series was created by Caprio’s brother, “Uncle Joe” Caprio and the judge’s son, John, is a producer.
“This shouldn’t be something I can rehearse, because I never know who’s coming before me [for a case],” Caprio said of “Caught in Windfall.” “So I don’t know if I’m going to have 80 people or 10 people, and when people appear before me, particularly in today’s world, so lots of them are suffering hardships. Repeatedly they’re single parents who’ve limited income and are having trouble supporting their children. So I place myself of their shoes: what would I do of their situation? What would my dad do in this case?
“I think about people’s personal circumstances,” he said. “It’s amazing that so repeatedly not only have we mitigated a advantageous and sometimes paid it but we’ve … turn out to be involved with a few of these people of their personal lives as well in an try to help them out.”
Caprio stays grounded to his Windfall roots and, due to his television and social media exposure, he’s been recognized while on trips around the globe (including Abu Dhabi and Italy).
“In my office I even have an image taken of my brother, who’s three years older, and me, once I was 10,” he said. “It’s certainly one of those days once we were up at 4 within the morning and I appear to be I used to be starved to death and disheveled.
“I have a look at that photo on daily basis … in my heart … that’s who I’m,” he said. “That’s how I used to be once we were kids. My father on one shoulder and my mother on the opposite giving me advice on a regular basis. That’s where I live. The popularity [from ‘Caught in Providence’] has never made me anyone else.
“I’m just a child named Frankie from an area in Windfall called Federal Hill where immigrants from Italy settled — and that has never left me.”
