Nanny Marianne Benjamin-Williams Accused Of Choking Child With A Baby Wipe - Details
Prosecutors think incident happened while she was also watching 14-months-old sister.
Oct. 7 2018, Published 7:38 p.m. ET
Prosecutors have accused a Manhattan nanny of trying to kill a child in her care by choking him with a baby wipe.
They believe that Marianne Benjamin-Williams is guilty because the baby boy's 14-months-old sister did not have the dexterity to roll-up the wipe.
Doctors removed a 'balled up baby wipe' that they believed was placed in his mouth and intentionally pushed down his throat.
Williams was watching the two children when the baby boy had to be rushed to hospital suffering 'respiratory distress'.
The nanny faces charges including attempted murder, strangulation and assault.
Williams was hired by a Manhattan doctor and his banker wife to care for their two children.
The horror incident reportedly happened on May 18, 2017, inside the family's Waterside Plaza home.
Assistant District Attorney James Zaleta revealed at Williams arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court that firefighters removed an inch-long piece of jagged plastic from the boy's mouth but he was still struggling to breathe.
FDNY paramedic Timothy Anson responded to the incident after the hysterical sitter called the boy's mother at work and told her he was choking.
"I saw a blue, limp, pale, barely breathing baby," Anson testified.
"The baby was not crying. It was more like a dull whimper."
The boy was rushed to Bellevue Hospital as his distraught parents, Dr Salomon Blutreich and Meredith Sondler-Bazar, waited to find out if he would survive.
Prosecutors say Benjamin-Williams was the only one with the baby during the time that he was choking.
However, her lawyer, Leonard Levenson, said the nanny testified that she in fact had tried to save the baby after he struggled to breathe.
Levenson said the family his client worked for adored her and that the baby 'must have' swallowed the wipe on his own.
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Benjamin-Williams was indicted for attempted murder, assault, strangulation, reckless endangerment, possession of a forged instrument and endangering the welfare of a child.
Her bail was set at $100,000 bond or cash. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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