Caseworkers and their supporters rallied outside child welfare field offices in Lower Manhattan on Friday to protest the indictments of two former Administration for Children's Services' employees in the death of a 4-year-old girl who was starved, beaten and drugged.

Amid chants of "Drop the charges now," ACS caseworker Elizabeth Green said the prospect of being charged criminally like her colleagues when a case goes wrong was causing tremendous stress.

"A lot of caseworkers now are very frightened that you know, 'I could be next.' You know, 'It could happen to me. Something could happen on my watch,' so that's why we are giving these other workers support," Green said.

Prosecutors accuse ACS worker Damon Adams of falsified records to make it appear as if he'd visited the home of girl, who died in September. His supervisor, Chereece Bell, was charged for failing to monitor his work. Both have pleaded guilty to charges, which include criminally negligent homicide.

Marchella Brett-Pierce was malnourished, had been bound to a bed and force fed over-the-counter medications, prosecutors said. Her mother is facing murder charges and her grandmother was also recently indicted for failing to put a stop to the abuse.

On WOR radio Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended ACS commissioner John Mattingly.

"We probably do really have the best guy in the country," Bloomberg said. "When I meet people they say, 'How can people question this guy? We'd love to have him, please send him our way.' And I say, 'No we're not going to do that.'"

 Caseworkers say they're being stretched too thin. They blame problems at ACS on budget cuts, layoffs and leadership.

"Children are being abused unfortunately everyday and we have to handle all of these cases and when you don't have enough man power it's not going to work," said Caroline Ferguson-Clark, also an ACS caseworker.

ACS has admitted to failures but worries the criminal prosecutions will hurt recruitment for a job with already high turnover.