Francesco "Frank" Caprio (born 23 November 1936) was the chief municipal judge of Providence, Rhode Island from 1985 to January 2023, succeeding Joseph R. Paolino Jr. and preceding John Lombardi.
Biography[]
Francesco Caprio was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1936, the second child of an Italian immigrant milkman and an Italian-American mother. He worked as a dishwasher and shoe shiner while attending public school, and he became an American government teacher at Hope High School before becoming a lawyer. He served on the Providence City Council from 1962 to 1968, as a delegate to five Democratic National Conventions, and as a Providence Municipal Court Judge from 1985. In 2018, his popular courtroom show Caught in Providence became a nationally-syndicated show, and he came to be known as an understanding and compassionate judge. He retired in 2023 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.