Posted on 02/24/2012 8:11:38 PM PST by Hunton Peck
The son of Robert F. Kennedy has been charged with harassment and endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly clashing with two nurses who tried to stop him from taking his 2-day-old baby boy from a Westchester maternity unit, NBC New York has learned.
According to a Mount Kisco, N.Y. police report obtained by NBC New York, Douglas Kennedy, 44, took his baby from the newborn unit of Northern Westchester Hospital on Jan. 7, against the instructions of hospital staff who told him the infant needed to stay there. The arrest was on misdemeanor charges.
Kennedy and his wife, Molly, disputed the accusations in a statement to NBC New York, saying "these allegations are absurd."
The nurse in charge of the unit, Anna Margaret Lane, said in a deposition that Kennedy wanted to take the child "to get fresh air" that evening. As he tried to leave, he was accompanied by a doctor from the hospital's emergency room, identified in court papers as "Dr. Haydock," later determined to be Dr. Timothy Haydock, a longtime family friend.
While the nursing staff sought to get Kennedy to return the baby to his bassinet, Haydock reportedly encouraged Kennedy to walk with the baby by telling nurses that he was with him, according to Lane's deposition.
Kennedy ignored the pleas of the nursing staff and carried the newborn -- identified in court papers as "B.K." -- to the elevator, police said. As the nursing staff tried to calm him and dissuade him from leaving the hospital, Kennedy turned and walked toward a stairwell leading to the outside of the hospital.
Lane blocked the doorway, "placing both hands on the doorknob" to prevent Kennedy from leaving, police said. Kennedy grabbed the nurse by her left wrist and twisted it to that he could pass into the stairwell, police said.
The baby's head "began to move from side to side, and in an attempt to stabilize the baby's head, nurse Cari Maleman Luciano reached toward the infant's head," police said.
"Instinctively as a nurse, I raised both my arms toward the neck of the baby to steady the violent shaking of the baby's head and neck," Luciano told investigators in a deposition.
While holding the child in his right arm, Kennedy kicked Luciano in the pelvis with his right foot, knocking her backward onto the floor, police said.
As he did this, Kennedy fell onto the floor with the baby in his arms. Kennedy then got up and ran "down the stairs with the infant until he was stopped by security and escorted back to the infant's room," the police report said.
The police report did not say whether the infant was harmed in the altercation.
The statement to NBC New York from Kennedy and his wife said there was no crime committed.
"The nurse had no right to attempt to grab our child out of his father's arms and I, Douglas, was shocked and appalled when she did so," the statement said.
Haydock said in a statement to NBC New York that Kennedy, whom he has known for more than 40 years, was not putting his healthy baby at risk by seeking to take him for a walk outside.
"I witnessed the incident and I can state unequivocally that the nurses were the only aggressors," he said. "To charge Mr. Kennedy with a crime is simply incomprehensible to me."
Kennedy is the 10th child of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy. He and Molly have four children.
A Brown University graduate, Kennedy started his journalism career with The New York Post and most recently worked as a general assignment reporter and bi-monthly news program host for Fox News.
Women do have a tendency to become hysterical around Kennedy men. You might end up drowned, raped or murdered in cold blood. I’ll stick with the nurses on this one.
Unusual? Sounds like he was drunk. That is a kennedy norm, not unusual.
I wonder how many are supporting this simply because he's a Kennedy?
Would you allow a nurse to tell you that you couldn't take your child out for a walk while accompanied by a doctor?
I think most of us assume, since he IS a kennedy, that he was drunk. Would you let a drunk walk out of the hospital with a newborn infant? And presumably drive off? Legally, the baby belongs to the mother who gave birth, she was still in the hospital and not going anywhere. They were not checking out.
And why was an ER doc on the maternity floor have any sway over anyone? Was he even an ER doc at that hospital?
Please, this whole story reeks of booze.
And of course the reporter can’t seem to find the words ...
Update, Tioga: Kennedy’s been arrested. So much for those nasty nurses!
I meant to say on child endangerment charges.
I DID read the whole story. I see that Kennedy has been arrested as he should have been. I stand by my previous comment regarding his actions 100%.
To call me "hysterical" because I posted an opinion, and to call the alert nurses "hysterical" because they were doing their medical duty as they saw it at the moment says a lot more about you than it does about us. If male nurses were involved, would you refer to them as "hysterical", also?
Leni
Update? The whole article is based on his arrest.
The whole kennedy clan has issues.......rape, DUI, DWI, murder....hell, they are a danger to all of us.
That is not the issue: the issue was the hospital’s assertion of rights superior to those of the parents over the child. The story reflects the increasingly totalitarian nature of our society.
And it is as simple as that! If charges are to be filed, how about attempted kidnapping by the nurse that was trying to grab the baby?
Yes, I know. I made a mistake.
A nurse can’t someone mentally incompetant, on the fly, for someone who is not even a patient. Show me where the law allows that.
One more good reason to have children at home, not at the place for sick people.
I really wish people would read my posts more carefully so I don't have to do a remedial lesson. FYI the law not only allows but requires medical practitioners to report all potential as well as actual cases of child abuse, and that goes for nurses. And they will do it at the drop of a pin. It covers their flanks legally and is virtually 100% riskfree for them.
As for finding mental incompetence, they don't have to FIND it, they need only report that they suspect it or consider it possible, and the victim is treated accordingly, being arrested, confined, restricted, manhandled, cuffed and/or hauled into court as the case may be. The benefit of the doubt goes to the medical practitioner/hospital/accuser who is presumed to be erring, if at all, on the side of caution.
Does that clear it up for you any?
ps: Again, not defending a Kennedy, particularly one who kicked a nurse who was almost certainly following reasonable procedures. (A non-Kennedy would have been in court the next morning, all scuffed and lacerated by hospital security.)
Douglas was an infant when his father was assassinated. His younger sister, Rory, was born after her father was killed.
Lol. I should clarify. Doc is not opposed to immunizations altogether. She is opposed to giving them when a baby is barely out of the womb.
Not joking. As for the misplaced order, our pediatrician took care of it within minutes. The nurses took at least five more hours to finish the paperwork. They were very fortunate that hubby did not show up until I told him they were done. There would have been a scene. As it was, I think we had the second shift nurse take over. She was very apologetic. You have no idea how unorganized this department was. I’ve written about our bad experiences. We have had wonderful nurses at other hospitals. We have 10 children. We have seen a lot of good and bad over the years.
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