Posted on 02/26/2012 8:50:05 AM PST by smoothsailing
Tim Blight
February 26, 2012
Douglas Kennedy, Fox News correspondent and son of the late Robert F. Kennedy, has been charged with assault after a 7 January incident in a New York hospital.
2 nurses at the Mt Kisco hospital alleged that Kennedy became violent after they tried to prevent him from taking his newborn son Bo outside of the ward. Kennedy says he wanted to "get some fresh air" and had already received permission from other nurses on duty, Reuters reports.
The confrontation began after nurses issued a "code pink", an alert that someone is attempting to abduct a baby. The incident was partially caught on surveillance camera; although obscured by a doorway, nurse Cari Luciano can be seen falling to the ground.
Luciano stated that Kennedy "raised his right foot and with tremendous force kicked [her] in the pelvis area". Another nurse, Anna Lane, accused the New York-based journalist of twisting her arm, although this appears off screen on the surveillance video.
Kennedy has been charged with harassment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Kennedy and his wife have labeled accusations "absurd" in an interview with NBC New York. His lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, called the altercation the result of "aggressive and grossly inappropriate behavior by two nurses".
"Whatever Douglas did came about only because the nurse was lunging to grab his child from his arms. What Douglas did was simply to protect his baby," he added.
A date for the hearing has not yet been announced.
The charges are serious, don't let the word misdemeanor fool you. If the facts merit it, New York will pursue it.
Kennedy will be arraigned on two charges.
Harrassment-a Class B misdemeanor.
Child endangerment-A Class A misdemeanor.
Class A Misdemeanors are the most serious of misdemeanors and hold a punishment of up to twelve months in a county jail facility. Crimes that are charged with a Class A Misdemeanor include third degree assault, second degree menacing, third degree stalking, sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, second degree unlawful imprisonment, fourth degree criminal mischief, graffiti, third degree bail jumping, third degree forgery, petit larceny, second degree criminal contempt, fourth degree criminal possession of a weapon, seventh degree of criminal possession of a controlled substance, and others.
Class B Misdemeanors are the middle ground of misdemeanors and have a maximum punishment of up to six months in a county jail facility. Those charged with Class B Misdemeanors include stalking, criminal mischief, unlawful imprisonment, bail jumping, criminal possession of a controlled substance, forgery, sexual misconduct, menacing, assault, larceny, graffiti, and others. Class B Misdemeanors are very similar to Class A Misdemeanors as they often have the same crimes but in lesser degrees of severity.
You jackass. Kennedy could NOT get access to his child without the hospital’s permission. The hospital staff knew who he was. They had seen him several times before this incident. They knew he was the child’s father, yet, a couple of jack-booted “nurses” decided to try and throw their weight around and play ghestopo, but Kennedy bitch slapped them for trying. And now those beatches are looking for a pay-day.
Piss off, you friggin’ feminazi POS. Why don’t you find a nice cop friendly thread, where jackasses like you defend cops who taze a homeless man to death.
You suck balls.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Now shove it where the sun don’t shine, Beeaatch!
Go ahead ,report me.
You are in much greater troll territory than I am.
The alarm rings. All the nurses jump into action. They may not be this babies nurse. They have to treat everyone with a degree of suspicion when the alarm rings.
That is how the system works.
Gracias, FRiend.
But I ain’t out of the woods yet. Got some punk named “Hot Tobasco” busting my chops because I’m sticking to my guns.
No worries though. “Hot Tobasco” is punk a$$ beatch that picked a fight with the wrong hornets’ nest. I’ll dispatch him/her in short order.
Gawd Almighty, where do these people come from?!
Be well and continue fighting the “Good Fight”, FRiend.
EK
You are completely out of line.
As I said up thread, we’ll let the mods sort it all out.
Making shameless and blatantly false accusations against other FReepers should not be tolerated, and I’m going to just stand by and see what happens.
Go ahea, let them sort it out.
I am not the person defending a Kennedy.
@ Hot Tobasco:
Just in case you didn’t read my post:
You’re a complete jackass. I’m not going to waste any more time defending myself or other FReepers against fascist feminazis like you. It’s a waste of time and energy. I gots bigger fish to fry, BEEAATTCCHH!
So, having said that, do FR a favor and crawl back into your hole, or under the bridge or basement you call home, you tiny, worthless, POS troll.
But a few points I’d like to make:
Contrary to him being a member of the Kennedy family, there is no evidence to support he was drunk or high on drugs (I don’t think the nurses involved in the incident even claimed this) nor was he acting irrationally or recklessly except for wanting to take his newborn son for a walk.
Hospital maternity wards are hard to get into, and for good reason. When my niece and her husband had their babies, no one could get into the ward unless they were on the list of people pre-authorized by the parents. I not only had to show ID, I had to leave my driver’s license with the front desk, wear an ID badge and be buzzed into the unit by a nurse or met at the door by one of the parents.
There was no indication that the baby was in harm’s way by being taken for a walk by his father or against the mother’s wishes, even outside for a brief time. There is no indication that the baby had any medical condition that would prevent such a thing – this was not a NICU BTW. And it’s been unusually warm here in the NE, it’s not like it was raining, snowing or that the temps were frigid.
Contrary to wild and unfounded speculations of spousal abuse, his wife, the baby’s mother was not objecting and there was, while not an attending, a physician present.
Sometimes nurses and other hospital staff can act like total a$$wipes and suffer from the delusion that their position gives them the right to interpret the “rules” as they see fit without any application of common sense.
Just a few examples that I’ve experienced of the stupid actions of hospital staff (and I have more):
My dad was in and out of the hospital many times between ’93 and ’97. During one hospitalization, the doctor saw him the night before his discharge, verbally told him he could go home the next morning and noted it his chart (which I read) but failed to sign just one of the several required discharge forms. I got to the hospital at 9:00AM to pick up my dad who was dressed and ready to go but the duty nurse said the doctor needed to discharge him and she couldn’t allow us to leave. We waited and waited and patiently waited. Noon came and went and my dad, being a diabetic, needed to eat but no lunch was brought for him, because he had been “discharged” although they did bring him his insulin. I asked the floor nurse if a lunch could be brought for him and in a snit and a huff she told me I could just go to the cafeteria to buy him something if I really wanted otherwise she “might” be able to find him a sandwich later but she was just too busy at the time.
The doctor had been called several times but was unavailable to personally come and sign the one piece of paper he missed signing but gave a verbal OK to let me take my dad home but that wasn’t good enough. By 4:00 PM we were still waiting and my dad had had enough and started walking out. The nurse screamed at us that we were not allowed to leave, “You’re committing a crime if you take him home.” My dad said “Yea, and you and who’s army going to stop me?” The nurse then said, “Then you have to sign a form saying you are leaving against medical advice.” I calmly and politely told the nurse that his discharged was noted in his chart and he was not leaving against medical advice and she then told me that I wasn’t “supposed” to be reading his chart and that I wasn’t “qualified” to read it assuming that I could even read. At this point, we just left. She threatened to call the police and I said, “Go ahead, I dare you”. If she had tried to physically stop us from leaving, laid a hand on either me or my dad, at that point I might have very well cold cocked her. We got a phone call from the doctor and the hospital administrator apologizing after I filed a written complaint about our treatment.
When my niece and her husband were having their first baby, they asked if I wanted to be in the delivery room. I wasn’t able to have any children and I was very honored. But after many hours of labor, she wasn’t progressing, the baby was coming down the birth canal face first and the fetal heart monitor showed signs of distress so the OBY was called and it was decided that an emergency C-Section was necessary.
My niece was very upset and even more upset when after bringing her husband scrubs and a mask and instructions to scrub up, was told by the nurse that I couldn’t come with them. She said it was against the “rules” to have anyone but the father in the OR. When the doc came to talk to my niece before being wheeled into the OR, he looked at me and asked why I didn’t have my scrubs on too and we told him what the nurse told us. He rolled his eyes and said “that’s ridiculous, it’s not against any rules I know of, we do this all the time and I’ll take care of this.” When the nurse came back to the room, she literally and quite angrily threw a pair of scubs at me and told “Well the doctor overruled me so you need to just hurry on up.” The doc and OBY OR nurses on the other hand were great BTW. The doc told me the dad’s job was to keep mom calm and my job was to keep dad calm and to man the camera and take lots of pictures of the baby after she was delivered. After the doc, nurses and mom and dad, I was the very next person to hold my great niece and have a very nice picture of me in scrubs holding her along with a picture of me and my great niece and the doc.
On one hand, he (Kennedy) should have asked to talk with a supervisor first and not have forced the issue and IMO gotten into a physical confrontation and he may have been acting like a jerk. But on the other, other hand, I don’t like it when statists: governmental or otherwise act like a child or a parent, family member, belongs to them and their institution and that the rights of the family and that of the individual and plain common sense are lesser than their sometimes arbitrary, open to interpretation and legally unenforceable “rules”.
In my opinion based on what I’ve read so far, he committed no crime by wanting to take his child with him for a walk. He might have been breaking the “rules” but it wasn’t criminal or negligent or dangerous but yet he was being treated as if it was. I can understand how something like this can escalate out of control and unless other facts rather than pure conjecture and speculation are presented, I, despite his family name, tend to side with him.
I’m on your side. If people don’t like the rules of a hospital find another one or stay home. Some of the men around here don’t like women who stand up for themselves. They are pathetic.
Good, conservative men do not kick women in the pelvis, no matter what the provocation ( or lack of) there is.
If you went to Church, and believe in God, you do not condone violence against women.
Defending the kicking of this nurse- no matter if there was a provocation or not- makes you look bad in the eyes of the female Freeper population.
I’m late to the discussion, but I read HT’s post and it seemed reasonable even if he came on a bit strong. But I will say that I know HT and he is one of the most mild-mannered and decent members of this board. And I think I agree with him that anyone carrying a baby out of a hospital needs more than just “verbal” permission from “someone.”
There is indeed probably more, though. I suggest everyone stand down until we know for sure.
Sometimes nurses and other hospital staff can act like total a$$wipes and suffer from the delusion that their position gives them the right to interpret the “rules” as they see fit without any application of common sense.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It happens sometime. The proper response is, “Please call the nursing supervisor.” Simply walking out and then kicking the nurse is not a rational.
No! YOU are completely out of line.
You insulted, attacked and made baseless accusations about me and other FReepers.
You are a coward and a fascist POS that hides behind annonimity.
The only opinion that matters to you is yours. In your mind, everyone and anyone who disagrees with you is not worthy of having an opinion. You remind me of the old saying: “When I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.”
I may be crass, rude and insulting at times during a heated debate, but I’m not a fascist POS like you. I respect well thought out, considerate and even rude opinions of fellow FReepers, but I do not approve of arrogant, egotistical, violent and baseless accusations meant to demean and silence debate from fellow FReepers.
Why don’t you go back to DU or Huffington Post? They love people like you. You have no place here on FR (IMHO).
You are an arrogant, fascist, marxist, feminazi troll.
If you are confused, go back and read your posts. The attacks you have made against myself and other FReepers are deplorable and reprehensible.
You have outed yourself as a horrid individual.
You need help! Counselling or medication is my suggestion, but I’m not a professional shrink or pharmacist, so don’t take my word for it. Just STFU and go away.
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