MANHATTAN FAMILY COURT — A video that shows two boys pushing a shopping cart off the top floor of an East Harlem mall, sending it crashing onto Upper West Side broker Marion Hedges below, was screened in family court Monday.
Manhattan Family Court Judge Susan Larabee ordered the footage played as part of a sentencing hearing for one of the boys, who was 12 at the time of the Oct. 30 incident but has since turned 13. The boys' names are being withheld by DNAinfo because of their ages.
The boy kept his eyes down as the surveillance footage showed him and a friend struggling to pull the cart away from a third boy and toss it over the railing of a four-story garage in front of the Target at East River Plaza mall. The boys, who have both pleaded guilty, had to give the cart an extra shove after the wheels of the cart got caught on the railing.
In a subsequent clip, the red shopping cart is seen landing on Marion Hedges, knocking her flat onto the pavement.
Mall shoppers are seen standing in shock for several moments before workers rushed to help Hedges, an Upper West Side mom, philanthropist and and broker for Prudential Douglas-Elliman, who was rushed to Harlem Hospital and spent time in a coma. She remained there for weeks before being released. Her current status is not clear.
In another clip, the boys are seen running from the garage without looking down to see where the cart landed.
The boy's attorney, Shahabbudden Ally, said their behavior immediately after the toss shows they "never intended to hit this person or anyone in particular" and said their prank, while extremely dangerous, was an act of childish play.
Larabee rejected Ally's requests to release the teen from his juvenile detention facility on parole, and turned down a request to let him leave the minimum security group home on a day pass to spend Christmas with his mother.
Progress reports discussed during the proceedings showed that the boy's treatment of staff at the group home has gotten worse since he's been there, said Larabee.
"I'm not paroling your client today," the judge said adding that in his recent reports there "shouldn't be any aggression much less more aggression."
Both of the boys have pleaded guilty to assault and may be held in a juvenile detention center until they turn 18.
The boy who appeared on Monday will return to court on Jan. 10.
