– lied to protect son who abused four-month-old
A Guyanese husband and wife on Friday last pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for their role in a 2008 shaken-baby case involving their adult son, who authorities say may have fled to Guyana to avoid prosecution, and were fined by New York Judge, Richard Giardino.
According to the Albany Times Union newspaper Lilwattia Ganesh, 53, and her husband, Goordial, 58, appeared separately before the judge on Friday.
Authorities have accused the Ganeshes of lying to cover up the alleged abuse their son Rohan,19, is said to have inflicted on his crying four-month-old son in May 2008.
The report said that the couple was later indicted on misdemeanour charges of conspiracy and making false statements to police. They first told detectives the child was injured after falling off the bed. They then said Rohan Ganesh’s older brother, who is severely mentally retarded, hurt the child, according to authorities and attorneys involved with the case.
Lilwattia Ganesh, the report said, needed an interpreter, who was teleconferenced in from New York City, to help her understand the proceedings. The interpreter, Dr John Roy, later explained to the judge that Ganesh spoke deep “Guyanese-English Creole.”
Her attorney, Michael Mansion, told the court that her immigration attorney had indicated to him that the criminal matter would have no bearing on her immigration case since she faces possible deportation.
“It won’t get her deported,” he told the court. Though the couple’s passports should have been surrendered as a condition of their bail, Lilwattia Ganesh said they had the travelling documents at their city home.
It was stated in the report that when it was his turn to testify, Goordial Ganesh, a US citizen, told the court he had been in the country 17 years and did not need the interpreter. The visually impaired man who suffers from other illnesses, however, said he would return to Guyana if his wife were deported, since she is his primary caregiver.
Police and prosecutors allege that on or around May 5, 2008, Rohan Ganesh picked up his infant son and shook him so violently that he suffered serious brain injury. In August, Ganesh was charged with reckless assault of a child and first-degree assault, both felonies, and misdemeanour child endangerment. Rohan Ganesh disappeared shortly after his arraignment in Niskayuna in December 2008 for violating an order of protection to stay away from Melessa Narine, 19, the mother of his three children.
Authorities, who have issued a warrant for his arrest, believe Narine may have fled to Guyana with him.
The child he allegedly injured is staying with his mother’s relatives, and his prognosis for recovery is good, said Michele Schettino, bureau chief of the Schenectady County district attorney’s special victims unit.
