JUDGE CAPRIO, A GOODMAN GREATLY APPRECIATED BY THE WORLD
-By Zik Gbemre
Frank Caprio was greatly appreciated by the public. All the donations he received from people he used them to pay fines of traffic offenders in his court who were poor.
Frank Caprio established a charity fund known as Filomena Fund which received donations from people and didn't take a dime out of it but used every fund to pay fines for people who committed offences and brought to his court room when he was alive.
Frank named the charitable fund after his mother, Filomena Caprio. He told his family before he passed that they shouldn't waste public funds for his funeral and avoid elaborate funeral.
A prominent Politician in Washington DC requested to attend Frank Caprio's funeral but his family refused and said they didn't want their father's funeral to be politicised and turned to a political rally ground because they kept strictly to their father's will.
They were not excited that prominent politicians and political leaders requested to attend their father's funeral. They didn't give a hoot about prominent politicians attending their father's funeral.
The court room was named after Frank Caprio before he died. He rejected many offers of being appointed a federal judge. He was comfortable with being a judge of Providence Municipal Court, Rhode Island state where his impact was felt in society and the world indeed.
People trooped from all over the world to Providence City to his court room to watch his court proceedings. He was a man I learnt a lot from and had actually wanted to meet with him in Providence City, Rhode Island state in 2025 or 2026 before he passed on August 20, 2025.
Caprio was like Tai Solarin of Nigeria who actually influenced my thoughts on social justice when I read his write-ups in Nigerian Tribune and some national newspapers as a student in secondary school.
Fela Kuti and Gani Fawehinmi were other great Africans that influenced me as a boy. I still recall Solarin's popular article titled 'May Your Road Be Rough' in his new year day message 1st January 1964.
Caprio was indeed a great man whose impact was felt globally.
Caprio not only paid fines for offenders guilty of traffic offences he also used Filomena Funds to give those poor and needy people for upkeep who were brought to his courtroom for trial.
Caprio said in one of his interviews that if he was too strict he would create more hardship for poor people. In most cases he dismissed cases and he had the power to suspend driving licences of offenders but he didn't do that because that would create more hardships for the poor people who could not pay fines. He was a rare jurist with a golden heart.
He also lambasted a lawyer who once described a veteran as a playing army. He told the lawyer that when you were in law school holding parties as student the veteran was busy defending the lives of citizens.
He gave special treatment to veterans who were brought to his court room for trial by dismissing their cases.
Zik Gbemre
September 26,2025
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