Beloved TV Judge Frank Caprio: ‘I wear a heart under my robe’

nypost.com:

Caught in Providence,” is beloved by viewers around the world.And here’s one reason why.“When I make a decision it can effect someone’s livelihood, their life and their families lives,” Caprio told The Post. “One thing I’ve committed myself to is to treat people with respect, compassion and understanding … and I try to place myself in the shoes of the people before me.“I don’t wear a badge under my robe — I wear a heart.”Caprio, 86, has morphed into a social media superstar via “Caught in Providence,” which started in 1987 on local access television in Providence, RI and, in 2018, launched in syndication (on Facebook Live and Law & Crime), snaring three Daytime Emmy Award nominations.

There is no studio audience, only the live court proceedings, “so we differ substantially from the other court shows,” Caprio said.Caprio, a Providence Municipal Court Judge since 1985, has been called “The Nicest Judge in the World” for his empathetic demeanor, amassing over 20 million social media followers and more 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) in the Federal Hill section of Providence.“My dad was a milkman.

He’d wake my brother [Antonio] and I up at 4 o’clock in the morning and say to us, ‘If you don’t want to do this for the rest of your life, you’d better stay in school and get a college 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 supposed to stop their milk — and I can remember my father saying, ‘If they have kids, I am not stopping their.