Man sentenced to probation after abandoning infant
He had left his son in a Delaware hospital's parking lot. The child's mother is still missing.
WILMINGTON - A New Jersey man accused of abandoning the son he fathered with his missing mistress was sentenced to 18 months' probation yesterday after his lawyers reached a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Rosario DiGirolamo, 32, of Millstone Township, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangering and child abandonment, both misdemeanors. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that evidence did not support a felony endangerment charge of leaving his 11-month-old son, Michael, at substantial risk of death when DiGirolamo left him in the parking lot of Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., on June 9.
"He just didn't go up to that hospital and kick the baby out of the car," defense attorney Jerome Ballarotto said after the sentencing.
DiGirolamo instead stayed in the parking lot and kept an eye on the child until a nurse found the baby, Ballarotto told Superior Court Judge Peggy Ableman.
"He dropped the child off at a specific location . . . intending that someone in short order would find the child," he told the judge. " . . . He understands that it was wrong."
According to Ballarotto, the baby's mother, Amy Giordano, had abandoned the baby to DiGirolamo, saying she no longer wanted the child. The baby was found in the parking lot two days after Giordano, 27, disappeared. Police have described DiGirolamo as a "person of interest" in the disappearance of the Hightstown, N.J., woman, who was last heard from on June 8 when she spoke by telephone with her 6-year-old son, who lives in New York City with her ex-husband.
Michael DiGirolamo was found the next day in the hospital parking lot with a scrawled note pinned to his diaper that read: "Please help my baby John Vincent. I can no longer take care of him. Lost job, lost medical. God have mercy on me."
Ballarotto said his client has cooperated with authorities investigating the disappearance of Giordano.
The child was placed in foster care under the supervision of the Division of Family Services. Spokeswoman Kelly Bachman said yesterday that Michael remains in preadoptive placement.
Deputy attorney general Phyllis Scully said prosecutors agreed that probation was the appropriate sentence for DiGirolamo.
Ballarotto said DiGirolamo had "a total breakdown" and spent six weeks in a psychiatric hospital in Italy after he flew to Milan on June 14, the same day that police in Delaware and New Jersey connected the baby to Giordano and DiGirolamo.
DiGirolamo, who also has a 1-year-old son with his wife, returned to the United States and surrendered to Delaware state police on Aug. 2. His wife has filed for divorce.
"It's been a very difficult time for him," Ballarotto said.