Douglas Kennedy: Child endangerment charges against him ‘warped’

The trial of a son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on misdemeanor charges he scuffled with nurses when he tried to take his newborn son out of a hospital resumed Tuesday morning in suburban New York.

It was the second day of the proceedings in the Mount Kisco Town Court where Kennedy faces charges of harassment and child endangerment in connection with the incident. The trial resumed Tuesday morning, broke for lunch and will resume in the afternoon, a court spokesman said by telephone.

On Jan. 7, Kennedy tried to take his 2-day-old son, Anthony Boru Kennedy, out of Northern Westchester Hospital for what he said was breath of air. He was stopped by nurses who said Kennedy used force on them.

One nurse, Anna Lane, has testified that Kennedy twisted her arm and kicked another nurse to the floor as he tried to leave the hospital. Lane said she tried to stop Kennedy because there was no hospital release to allow the baby to leave. Kennedy insisted he didn’t need the document and moved to the elevator and stairwell, where Lane and another nurse, Carrie Luciano, tried to block the way, Lane testified.

The case is being heard without a jury by Judge John Donohue. The prosecution has played a surveillance video from the hospital.

The video shows Luciano falling to the floor near the elevator but did not show what caused her fall.

Kennedy’s wife, Molly, came to court with him on Monday. The couple have said a prepared statement: “Our simple desire to take our son outside for fresh air has been warped into a charge of child endangerment.”

Kennedy is the 10th of 11 children of Ethel and Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 in Los Angeles.

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