Dad/college basketball coach sentenced to jail for beating 4-year-old son (Buffalo, New York)

Dad LAZARE "ADI" ADINGONO will get 60 days in jail for repeatedly beating his 4-year-old son with a belt. The boy will also get a five-year order of protection.

http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/798810.html

Former Canisius coach sentenced to jail for beating son
By Matt Gryta
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
September 17, 2009, 4:47 PM / 0 comments

A former assistant basketball coach at Canisius College was sentenced today to 60 days in jail for repeatedly beating his 4-year-old son with a belt on Jan. 15.

Lazare "Adi" Adingono also was ordered to stay away from his son in a five-year order of protection and told to refrain from offensive conduct against his estranged wife and other children if they should they reconcile.

Adingono, 31, expressed remorse and his estranged wife, Maureen, urged the court to let her family reconcile. She recently gave birth to their second son, their third child, last month in Providence, R.I.

State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges, however, pointed to recent attempts of Adingono to minimize the crime and "the significant injuries" his son suffered in the beating in the family's Lafayette Avenue home.

He also was ordered to get a job within 30 days of his release from jail, placed on probation for the next three years and directed to complete domestic violence, mental health and parenting programs.

Adingono, a native of Cameroon, pleaded guilty June 18 to a misdemeanor third-degree assault and misdemeanor child endangerment.

Adingono is expected to spend about 40 days behind bars.

"I acted stupidly and out of character," Adingono told the judge.

The "bad judgment that day" will be something "I will live with for the rest of my life," he added.

Defense attorney Harvey F. Siegel urged the judge grant Adingono, who is a U.S. citizen, a conditional discharge, sparing him any penalties. He said Adingono has been getting professional therapy and completed an anger management program since his arrest. Prosecutor Rosanne Eimer Johnson said Adingono who was arrested after Rhode Island authorities contacted Buffalo police.

Johnson said the boy was injured as his father was disciplining him over a household incident.

After Rhode Island authorities contacted Buffalo police, she said, Adingono was arrested Feb. 10 by Detectives Jacqueline Sullivan and Karyn Carney of the Buffalo Police Sex Offense Squad and jailed briefly.

Adingono was a member of his native Cameroon national basketball team before starring at the University of Rhode Island earlier this decade.

He was an assistant coach of the Canisius College men's basketball team for three years before being fired after his arrest.