LOCKPORT -- A judge today refused to bar Nicole and Randy Colucci, accused of murder in the death of their 2-year-old daughter, from seeing their other children, who are in foster care.

Niagara County prosecutors sought a complete order of protection for the four youngsters because of statements the Coluccis had ostensibly made to them during supervised visits.

There is a fifth child -- Nicole Colucci had a baby daughter last Wednesday -- but she was not named in the court papers. It was believed the infant also was placed in foster care, although attorneys could not confirm that.

Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco said he thought the statements were attempts to influence the testimony of the children in the case.

County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza said there were comments to the children such as, "They're trying to tear our family apart."

"It's harmful to the children. It has the potential to impair the integrity of the proceedings if they have to come in and testify," Zucco told Sperrazza.

Defense attorney Joseph Terranova, representing Randy Colucci, said the alleged statements occurred between the April 8 death of Carmen Colucci and the filing of criminal charges in late June.

"You just don't order parents not to have any contact with their children," Terranova said. "The policy [of Family Court] is to put family units back together."

Terranova said that Family Court ordered the four children taken away from the Coluccis after Carmen's death, and the children learned of that death from a caseworker.

Assistant Public Defender David E. Blackley, representing Nicole Colucci, said there was no need to bar future visits. He said supervised visits could even be videotaped to offer proof that nothing untoward was occurring.

"This is not the first case in history where this happened," Blackley said.

Sperrazza said all future visits between the Coluccis and their children would have to occur in the presence of a Child Protective Services supervisor who would be under orders to take notes. The judge said any talk about the court cases is off-limits.

Randy Colucci Sr., 25, and Nicole Colucci, 24, of 22nd Street, Niagara Falls, are charged with second-degree murder under the "depraved indifference to human life" section of the law.

Police said the parents placed a mattress, weighed down by a TV set, atop the playpen of Carmen and one of her siblings March 30 to keep them from climbing out, and the next day they found Carmen's neck trapped between the mattress and the top rail of the playpen. The girl was taken off life support April 8 in Women and Children's Hospital.

The question of visitation was moot until the Coluccis were bailed out of the County Jail Aug. 16, thanks to $75,000 bail bonds secured by the homes of Randy Colucci's mother and grandmother.

Meanwhile, Sperrazza set a Sept. 15 court date to discuss a defense request to try the murder charges separately from the charges of endangering the welfare of the four other children, which are part of the same indictment.

Terranova said if they were tried together, "The jury would be left with the impression the prosecution is about bad parenting in general."

The four children taken to foster homes after Carmen's death -- Shawna Starcher, Haley Moreland, Randy Colucci Jr. and Ivy Colucci -- range in age from 1 to nearly 9. Two are Nicole's children by other fathers.

tprohaska@buffnews.comnull