New York: Surveillance video emerged of a hospital fracas in which a son of Robert F Kennedy allegedly fought with two nurses trying to prevent him taking his newborn son outside.
Douglas Kennedy, whose father was assassinated in 1968 while running for the US presidency, was arrested on Thursday on misdemeanour child endangerment and harassment charges related to the January 07 incident in the maternity ward of the Northern Westchester Hospital, near New York.
Kennedy says he was trying to take his two-day old son out for fresh air when the nurses blocked him, US media reported. The nurses allege that the Kennedy baby had not been cleared to leave the hospital and they feared an abduction was underway.
Video from a corridor in the ward that was broadcast on US television yesterday showed Kennedy carrying the newborn to an elevator where he is confronted by staff. Moments later a nurse falls to the floor.
ABC quoted court documents in which one nurse, Cari Luciano, accused Kennedy of raising his "right foot, and with tremendous force, kicked me in the left side of my pelvic area”.
The nurse said she activated a child abduction and combative party alert.
Kennedy and his wife Molly issued a statement to the US media saying: "It is sickening to think that our simple desire to take our son outside for fresh air has been warped into a charge of child endangerment."
PTI
