A judge dismissed a misdemeanor criminal charge against a New York nurse whose trial was set to begin this week after she was accused of manhandling a newborn baby in an incident that was caught on video last year by an alert parent at Good Samaritan Hospital.
During a preliminary hearing, the defense asked for a dismissal, and prosecutors with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office admitted they could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, allowing Amanda Burke to walk free on March 25, the day her trial was to begin and more than a year after she was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
Burke was fired the same day of the February 2023 incident, which shocked the Long Island community when video emerged of the nurse roughing up a newborn baby.
A father recorded her through a window of Good Samaritan’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where he witnessed the nurse slamming his 2-day-old son face down into his bassinet, according to the Suffolk County district attorney.
Burke later admitted to mishandling the baby when she flipped the infant by its diaper, but denied that she intended to abuse or hurt the child.
On Monday, defense attorney Robert Gottlieb welcomed the dismissal after maintaining Burke’s innocence since he took her case in February 2023, saying, “Amanda should never have been charged.”
“The most they could say was that turning the baby over by the diaper was negligence, but it didn’t even rise to the level to issue a warning to sanction her in any way, and the case was closed,” Gottlieb explained, noting that the baby wasn’t harmed during the incident.
“The baby was cleared, was not injured, did not even react. Did not even cry,” Gottlieb said.
Following the judge’s decision, Burke hugged her lawyer and family members, and expressed relief that her ordeal was finally over.
“I’m just happy it’s over,” she said, describing some of the struggles she’s…
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