Dad claims medical leaks, assault in newborn case



Less than two months after being acquitted on charges of endangering his 2-day-old son and harassing nurses who attempted to stop him from taking the baby outside Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, Douglas Kennedy is suing the hospital, two nurses and one of their husbands.

The 44-page lawsuit, filed Friday in state Supreme Court in White Plains, names maternity ward nurses Cari Luciano of Hopewell Junction and Anna Lane of Brookfield, Conn., as defendants, along with Cari Luciano’s husband, Steve Luciano.

It alleges assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, malicious prosecution and breach of confidentiality, and seeks unspecified damages.
The lawsuit by Kennedy and his wife, Molly, centers on a confrontation Kennedy had with hospital staff the night of Jan. 7, 2012, over his wish to take his son Bo outside for fresh air.

It comes six weeks after the nurses filed a $200,000 civil lawsuit accusing Kennedy of negligence, assault and battery as well as causing them physical distress, including “serious personal permanent injuries with pain and suffering of the body and mind.”

Kennedy claims in the lawsuit that he wanted to take his son out in 60-degree weather and that family friend Dr. Timothy Haydock, a hospital employee, told the couple “there was no medical reason” he couldn’t do that. The lawsuit alleges that Luciano and Lane “physically blocked” Kennedy after telling him he couldn’t take the baby out, causing a “Code Pink” or a “Code Purple” or both to be called. Those codes refer to an infant abduction and combative person, the lawsuit says.
Kennedy alleges that Cari Luciano assaulted him, aggressively lunging toward him “with her arms out in an effort to remove his infant son from his arms.” The action, Kennedy claims, caused him and Luciano to fall to the ground.

The lawsuit accuses Luciano and Lane, who were not assigned as Molly Kennedy’s nurses, of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on her. It further claims that Cari Luciano, her husband and Lane defamed Douglas Kennedy through statements to hospital staff, the New York Daily News, Mount Kisco police and NBC’s “Today” show, causing irreparable harm to his reputation.

According to the lawsuit, officials at the hospital, including President Joel Siegelman, acknowledged to Molly Kennedy that there were unauthorized disclosures of federally protected health information, including her medical records, her infant son’s medical records and a video surveillance tape from Jan. 7.
Douglas Kennedy was acquitted Nov. 20 of endangerment of a child and two counts of physical harassment against the nurses after a bench trial. He has vowed to fight the lawsuit filed by the nurses in late November. Attorney Elliot Taub, representing the nurses in that lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.

Kennedy, 45, a Chappaqua resident and Fox News reporter, is the 10th of 11 children of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. His father was assassinated in 1968. Douglas Kennedy’s sister-in-law, Mary Kennedy, hanged herself in May in Bedford. A sister, Kerry Kennedy, pleaded not guilty to drug-impaired driving after an accident in July on Interstate 684.

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