Today's Video Headlines: 01/23/26
The city’s Administration for Children’s Services “stole” a vibrant but mentally ill teenager from her family months before she leapt to her death from the Brooklyn Bridge in despair, her mom told The Post.
Jade Smith was just 13 — but had already spent years battling hallucinations and suicidal thoughts — when ACS took custody of her for 4 1/2 months and began bouncing her between foster homes,“They made everything so much worse,” mom Terri Nimmo claimed in her first public remarks. “She should be here and she isn’t — and it is ACS’ fault. Their behavior resulted in my daughter dying.”Her charges come as the agency faces scrutiny over its handling of a Bronx horror home — where a depraved mom allegedly starved her teenage twins and kept themHere’s when NYC region will be slammed with 'catastrophic' snowstorm — and how much everyone will get“She loved watching anime and reading graphic novels. She was honing her own drawing style. She was on the debate team.“It was scary to see my baby experiencing something so terrifying,” recalled Nimmo, who has an 11-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter with husband Richard. “It was something I couldn’t fix, and that is so painful as a mother to see your child struggling and afraid.” The dedicated mom got Jade all the help she could: “various inpatient treatments,” regular therapy, medications, she said. “But it wasn’t enough,” she said. “We had to keep going back to figure out what was going on with her.” During this struggle, Nimmo was going to school to be a medical technician, and Richard worked the late shift as a security guard.“Right before they took Jade I was looking into a family inpatient program at the hospital I was working at. We had a lot of hope that it would help us cope as a family.In July 2022, Jade told her mother that someone had come into her room in the night and groped her, later identifying Richard as her assailant. She repeated the allegation to a friend, whose mother called the authorities. “This was impossible” given his overnight job, the family said in its lawsuit. A judge later cleared Richard of wrongdoing. When ACS showed up, “I thought they had the wrong house,” Nimmo said. “What they were saying didn’t make any sense. When they told me they had to come in and examine my other two kids I realized that this was really happening and I began to panic. “I did whatever ACS said because they told me that they would take all my kids and that I would go to jail if I didn’t listen to them,” Nimmo said, adding, “I was terrified.” ACS took custody of Jade in September 2022. But the agency failed miserably in monitoring her, according to the lawsuit.ACS allegedly failed to contact Jade’s therapist or any other medical professionals about her diagnoses, failed to document repeated episodes of her fleeing her foster homes, and took no action when she was apparently sexually assaulted during one of these flights, her family said in court papers.Case workers allegedly ignored the mom’s concerns. Ultimately, Jade ran away one last time — and never came home. Her body was found Jan. 16, 2023, on the East River shoreline near the historic Fulton Ferry Landing pier. “They are supposed to have policies that protect kids like Jade,” the still-reeling mom said. “They are supposed to be there to help families. How can they help a family that they won’t listen to? That they ignore and dismiss? “They decided what the narrative about our family was going to be and then they investigated that story and not the real one and my child is gone because of it.“That anyone can have that job and be allowed to treat people the way our family was treated – it is incomprehensible to me,” she added. Jade’s death was “wholly preventable,” said attorney Julia Elmaleh-Sachs, who represents the family in their Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit against the city and ACS, which is seeking unspecified damages. “For too long, ACS has weaponized its institutional power to subjugate and traumatize the very families it claims to protect.” ACS appeared to panic after Jade’s suicide, and probed the family for more than a year after her death –including at least two unannounced middle of the night visits — before a family court judge dismissed the case, according to the lawsuit.Terri and Richard lost their jobs, and their lives “effectively collapsed under the weight of the family’s grief and catering to ACS’ constant demands for immediate responsiveness, which had become a full-time job,” according to the court papers.Now, three years after Jade’s death, the family is “finally out of the shelter system” — but forever scarred, Nimmo said. “We are far away from our old neighborhood, and the change has been really hard on our son especially. He misses his friends and his neighborhood. . . . He barely smiles any more,” she said. “We offer our deepest condolences to Jade Smith’s family and loved ones. Her loss is a heartbreaking tragedy,” an ACS spokesperson told The Post. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to Here’s when NYC region will be slammed with 'catastrophic' snowstorm — and how much everyone will getKirsten FlemingStudded thongs, caged corsets and jockstraps: Irina Shayk’s V cover shoot is her wildest yetStefan Jeremiah for NY Post
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