A criminal case against a Long Island nurse accused of slamming a 2-day-old boy into his bassinet was dropped Monday, just before her trial was set to begin.
Amanda Burke was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child after a video appeared to show the registered nurse “lifting a two-day-old newborn and violently slamming him face-down into his bassinet while under her care,” the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in April 2023.
The incident occurred in February of last year while the nurse worked in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, N.Y.
Burke was fired “within hours of the incident,” her former employer said at the time.
In a statement announcing her arrest, District Attorney Raymond Tierney called the allegations “truly disturbing.”
On Monday, charges against her were dismissed.
“Unfortunately, despite the disturbing video … the New York State Department of Licensing found the defendant did not act with gross negligence,” Tierney said in a statement. “As such, we could not prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.”
Burke said she was relieved, maintaining she never questioned herself.
“I’m just happy it’s over. It was a nightmare,” Burke told reporters on Monday. “I was harassed. People at my door, emails. I have an 8-year-old. I felt like she was in danger. It was a nightmare.”
Her attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said his client “should never have been charged.”
Gottlieb, who said the baby wasn’t hurt in the incident, added her actions could maybe be interpreted as negligence, “but it didn’t even rise to the level to issue a warning [or] to sanction her in any way.”
In a statement shared with CBS New York, the baby’s grandmother said the family was “very, very upset with this disgusting situation and decision these people have made about my grandson and this awful woman still working as a caregiver.”
