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RFK's Son Arrested For Fighting With Westchester Maternity Nurses
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 25, 2012
Modified Feb 27, 2012
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 25, 2012
Modified Feb 27, 2012
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The youngest son of Robert F. Kennedy was arrested last month after an altercation with maternity nurses at the Westchester hospital where his wife had just a baby boy. NBC New York reports, "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. Kennedy was quietly arraigned on misdemeanor charges"— harassment and endangering the welfare of a child—"Thursday night."
Kennedy was apparently trying to take the baby outside for a walk, but the Northern Westchester Hospital maternity nurses disagreed. He and his wife Molly told NBC New York, "These allegations are absurd," but one nurse said that Kennedy kicked her in the pelvis. You can watch video of nurses trying to stop Kennedy from taking his son out of the ward:
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.
Nurse Anna Lane tried to a doorway, "placing both hands on the doorknob" to prevent Kennedy from leaving, police said. From NBC New York:
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.
A lawyer for the nurses said, "They called what's called a 'code pink.' That is, it looks like it's someone trying to abscond from the hospital with a newborn."
According to NBC New York, Kennedy was with Dr. Timothy Haydock, an ER doctor at the hospital who has known Kennedy for years. Haydock claims that there was no harm in Kennedy taking the two-day-old outside, "I witnessed the incident and I can state unequivocally that the nurses were the only aggressors. To charge Mr. Kennedy with a crime is simply incomprehensible to me."
Kennedy said, “We are sickened by the fact that our simple desire to take our healthy baby son out for a walk has been warped into child endangerment. Nobody should try grab a baby from a parent’s arms, as these nurses tried to do." His lawyer told the Post, “We are confident that the Westchester district attorney, once she is able to evaluate all the evidence, will dismiss these charges. The reason it’s clear that this is a money grab is that within days they had hired a personal-injury lawyer.”
Tagged
arrest
douglas kennedy
maternity ward
robert f kennedy
westchester county
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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