Kennedy cousin and accused killer Michael Skakel can’t fit his GPS tracking anklet under a ski boot — so a judge is allowing him to wear it elsewhere so he can ski with his son.
Skakel, 53, who was released from prison last year, claims the bulky bracelet forced him to hike alone for hours at his son’s ski competition, triggering an asthma attack last month.
By the time he caught up with his 14-year-old son on the slopes, the bracelet was nearly out of batteries, forcing him to miss most of the meet in order to charge it, his lawyers wrote in court papers.
“The defendant spent the vast majority of his time away from his son, rather than supporting and coaching him, even after having charged the device for the entire previous night and for one hour prior to scaling the mountain,” attorneys wrote in court papers.
“Thankfully, the defendant had his inhaler, otherwise very serious consequences could have resulted while he was alone on a mountain,” the lawyers note.
Skakel — who was convicted in the 1975 murder of his teenage neighbor, then granted a new trial in October — received permission from a judge to temporarily move the bracelet to a different part of his body.
He plans to move it by the end of the month, so he can ski alongside his son, who is competing in state championships at Lake Placid and high-school championships.
While at his son’s meet, Skakel hiked for three hours instead of skiing with other parents, lawyers said.
He then received a message from the GPS monitoring company saying the battery on his anklet was low and that he would need to return to the lodge to charge it, according to lawyers.
Skakel, the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, had spent 11 years in prison on a sentence of 20 years to life for bludgeoning to death Martha Moxley with a golf club in Greenwich, Conn., when both were 15.
But in October a judge ruled that Skakel’s trial attorney, Mickey Sherman, failed to adequately represent him when he was convicted in 2002.
The appeal is projected to take at least two years.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are appealing the ruling granting him a new trial.
In December, Skakel was also granted permission to travel to see his son in New York and relatives in Oregon.