Metro

Kennedy son’s baby tantrum

An irate Douglas Kennedy yelled, “Do you know who I am?” at security guards during a tantrum in which he assaulted two nurses and violated hospital rules by trying to leave with his newborn son, a prosecutor said during his bench trial yesterday.

Kennedy, the youngest son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is accused of kicking one nurse and twisting the arm of another who tried to stop him from taking his 2-day-old son outside Northern Westchester Hospital for some fresh air Jan. 7.

“I’m ready for justice to be done,” Kennedy said as he arrived at court with his wife, Molly, brother, Maxwell, and sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland.

In an opening statement at the Westchester trial, prosecutors said Kennedy had been out of control.

“The defendant reached up with his leg and, with tremendous force, kicked [a nurse] in the abdomen so hard she fell back several feet,” prosecutor Amy Puerto said.

Nurse Anna Lane said she tried to block the door to the stairs after another nurse, Cari Luciano, blocked the elevator.

“He grabbed me,” said Lane, whose hand was on the stairwell doorknob. “He grabbed my left hand, which was behind the doorknob, and twisted my arm, and my arm came off the door handle.”

She said that when Luciano intervened, Kennedy kicked her, lost his balance and fell to the floor — with the baby in his arms.

Undeterred, he continued down the stairs, only to run into two security guards.

“Do you know who I am?” he scolded one, before turning around and heading back up the stairs.

The incident set off a hospital-wide “Code Pink,” indicating an abduction. But by the time cops arrived, the child, Bo, Kennedy’s fifth, was back in the maternity ward.

Kennedy, 45, was arrested weeks later and charged with child endangerment and two counts of harassment, all misdemeanor charges

A state investigation, which included a visit to the Kennedy home in Chappaqua, found no evidence of child abuse.

Kennedy’s lawyers said the nurses overreacted and are after his money.

“They both had a motive to lie on that day,” lawyer Celia Gordon said.

They made “outrageous demands” that included “thousands of dollars from Mr. Kennedy,” Gordon said.

“Contrary to what they told the ‘Today’ show and their personal-injury lawyers, it took very little effort for Mr. Kennedy to open the door.”

Surveillance video shows Kennedy holding his son, entering a hospital elevator and being blocked by two nurses.

The trial continues today.