Coney Island mom charged with drowning kids not ‘medically cleared’ for arraignment: DA
The Brooklyn mom charged with drowning her three younger youngsters in Coney Island is not mentally steady sufficient to deal with an arraignment on homicide fees, the Brooklyn District Attorney mentioned Thursday.
Erin Merdy, 30, has been hospitalized at NYU Langone Brooklyn’s psychiatric ward since Monday morning and is not but “medically cleared” to face the homicide fees the NYPD hit her with on Wednesday, DA Eric Gonzalez mentioned outdoors a wake for two of the kids.
“She’s not medically cleared for an arraignment, she can’t be arraigned either in person or bedside,” Gonzalez informed The Post outdoors of the Caribe Funeral Home in Flatlands the place a day, open-casket wake was held for Zachary Merdy, 7 and Liliana Stephen, 4.
“She’s not free to leave the hospital. She’s not clear for visitors, she’s still medically contained. The next step would probably be presentation of evidence to the grand jury.”
Gonzalez famous prosecutors have “180 hours” to current Merdy’s case to the grand jury and safe an indictment. If grand jurors vote to indict Merdy, she could possibly be arraigned subsequent week or the next in Brooklyn supreme court docket the place she can be “present” to face the costs, Gonzalez mentioned.
The borough’s prime prosecutor known as the Monday tragedy a “heartbreaking incident” and mentioned he attended the wake to pay his “respects” to the household.
“Today it was important for me to come out here as a father and a parent and a fellow resident of the county to express my condolences to the family,” he mentioned.
Heartbroken family and family members gathered on the funeral residence to recollect the 2 slain kids however the mourners, a few of whom have been seen praying across the kids’ coffins, refused to discuss the horror and requested for privateness.
Little Zachary’s father – Derrick Merdy – was noticed holding arms with a cluster of individuals in a circle.
Merdy’s youngest little one – three-month-old Oliver Bondarev, who was additionally allegedly drowned by his mom – was not current at Caribe. Details about his wake and funeral have been not instantly clear.
All three of the kids have completely different fathers.
Early Monday morning, Merdy left her Neptune Avenue residence with her three youngsters, walked them all the way down to the sand and allegedly drowned them within the surf, law-enforcement sources mentioned.
When cops later discovered her two miles away close to the Brighton Beach boardwalk, she was barefoot, soaking moist and traipsing via the sand in a bathrobe.
Relatives mentioned previous to the incident, she’d been appearing erratically and appeared delirious. They informed police she suffered from psychological well being points and should have been dealing with postpartum melancholy following the delivery of her son Oliver.
Merdy had a minimum of two studies of neglect filed towards her with town Administration for Children’s Services for failing to deliver the kids to highschool, however the disposition of the studies is unclear, law-enforcement sources mentioned beforehand.
Zachary’s father informed the New York Times his son was typically soiled and hungry when he confirmed up for mandated custody visits.
He informed the outlet he reported the mom to “child protective services” and tried to get full custody of their son, to no avail. It’s not clear to which company the daddy reported the mom.
