Northeast
Wealthy coastal enclave nanny charged with manslaughter in toddler's death
A nanny in Martha’s Vineyard has been charged with manslaughter after allegedly leaving two young children who were under her care inside her SUV for several hours, resulting in the death of one of the children.
Aimee Cotton, 41, was arrested on March 13 by authorities on charges of assault and battery on a child with injury and reckless endangerment, according to an arrest report from the Massachusetts State Police.
She was later charged with manslaughter when one of the children, a 3-year-old, died on March 19. The child has not been named.
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Cotton called the police in the early afternoon on March 13, reporting that “a child whom she was babysitting was not breathing and turning blue.” The Oaks Bluff Police Department first responded to the call, and alerted the state police, who arrived shortly thereafter.
The Oak Bluffs Police Department first responded to a 911 call made by Aimee Cotton, who is now charged with manslaughter in the death of a child under her care. (Oaks Bluff Police Department)
The victim was initially taken to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Emergency Room, and later transported by Boston Medflight helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital in critical condition.
The victim died six days later.
The arrest report indicates that Cotton first told responding officers that she and the children had had a relatively normal morning during which she attempted to take them for a walk, but scrapped the idea and took the children home when one of them would not cooperate.
She said that she took the children back to her home, where they played with toys and ate lunch, and explained that shortly after noon, she began loading her vehicle with hockey equipment and changed the children’s diapers in the process, before putting them in the vehicle.
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A sprawling Victorian home on ritzy vacation spot Martha’s Vineyard. (John Greim/LightRocket )
Cotton, who was described as “cooperative,” told police the children were in the car alone for no more than 15 minutes, and that she called the police around 1:15 p.m. because one of the children looked “sick and ill.”
Shortly thereafter, police obtained a Nest home camera with Cotton’s permission, which contained surveillance footage from outside the house.
That footage told a completely different story.
Police said that around 9:15 a.m., Cotton could be seen entering the driveway in her 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. She allegedly spent 10 minutes unloading items from the car and bringing them inside, but neither of the children were removed from the car.
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Victorian gingerbread cottages in Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. (Photo by John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Police said a period of nearly three hours passed without any activity on the Nest footage, before she began loading the SUV with the hockey equipment around noon. Over the course of the next hour, she loaded the vehicle and briefly brought the younger child, who survived, inside the house for about 10 minutes before returning that child to the car.
That is when she called 911 to report the unresponsive victim.
The next morning, state troopers brought Cotton in for questioning, where she capitulated and told officers that she left the children in the car for about three hours while she cooked herself food, attended to her personal hygiene, packed her son’s hockey equipment and completed other chores.
Massachusetts State Police ultimately arrested Aimee Cotton on manslaughter charges on March 20. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe)
The arrest report noted that Cotton showed remorse, but also made excuses for her behavior.
She was initially arrested on March 14 for assault and battery on a child with injury and reckless endangerment. She was booked into the Dukes County Jail and arraigned later that day.
On March 20, the day after the child died, she was arraigned in Edgartown District Court on the charge of manslaughter.
Edgartown Lighthouse, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. (iStock)
Cotton pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge and posted $21,000 bail. She was released with a GPS ankle monitor. She was also given a mandatory 6 p.m. curfew.
Cotton faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Her next court date is scheduled for April 3.
Harrison Barrow III, Cotton’s attorney, declined to comment.
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House Republicans are brushing off reports of anxiety over three historically red congressional seats, as the special election for two of them looms just a day away.
“Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine are exactly who House Republicans need to join our team,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital last week, referring to candidates running in Florida’s special election Tuesday.
Patronis is running for Florida’s 1st Congressional District, which was vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Fine is running for Florida 6th District, previously held by former Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who now serves as U.S. national security advisor.
Republicans have conceded they have been far outraised in those districts, and despite their likely victory, Democrats’ over-performance has reportedly raised concerns about the GOP’s fate in other areas of the country.
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Rep. Elise Stefanik is back in Congress as Republicans fight to hold onto seats in Florida, where GOP hopefuls Randy Fine and Jimmy Patronis are running. (Getty Images)
It comes after suggestions that GOP discord in a Republican-favored district in upstate New York made some people nervous about Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., ascending to President Donald Trump’s nomination as ambassador to the United Nations.
Stefanik withdrew her nomination on Friday in a decision that blindsided even lower levels of House GOP leadership, sources told Fox News Digital.
Democrats immediately seized on the news as evidence that Republicans were worried about losing her seat in New York’s 21st District – something Republicans flatly denied, while blaming the state’s progressive governor for signaling she would slow-walk the special election to replace Stefanik.
“It was a combination of the New York corruption that we’re seeing under Kathy Hochul, special elections and the House margin,” Stefanik said on “Hannity” Friday. “I’ve been in the House. It’s tough to count these votes every day. And we are going to continue to defy the political prognosticators and deliver, deliver victory on behalf of President Trump and, importantly, the voters across this country.”
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Florida state Rep. Randy Fine speaks during a special session, May 19, 2021, in Tallahassee. (AP)
Meanwhile, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told Fox News Digital, “We’d win this seat in a special election, and we’ll win it in a general election.”
Trump won the district by 20% in 2024, and Stefanik won every county during that same election cycle.
He told reporters at the White House last week, “We cannot take a chance. We have a slim margin,” and said he did not know who would be running to replace her.
But the president has also been busy at work in Florida, where he held tele-town halls for both Patronis and Fine over the weekend.
While the Democrats are the underdogs in both races, they’re winning the fundraising battle.
Democrat Gay Valimont hauled in over $6 million from Jan. 9 through March 12, compared to just $1.1 million for Patronis in Florida’s 1st District.
Orlando teacher Josh Weil grabbed plenty of national attention in recent weeks by raising $9.3 million compared to roughly $600,000 for Republican state lawmaker Fine in the Sunshine State’s 6th District.
The cash discrepancy in the 6th District race spurred GOP-aligned outside groups to make last-minute contributions in support of Fine in the closing days of the campaign, with conservative super PACs launching ads spotlighting Trump’s support of Fine.
Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
They have no predictions of success, however, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., telling reporters earlier this month, “These districts are so Republican, there would ordinarily be no reason to believe that the races will be close, but what I can say, almost guaranteed, is that the Democratic candidate in both of these Florida special elections will significantly overperform.”
But it has not alarmed the GOP’s core fundraising machines. Sources familiar told Fox News Digital that neither the NRCC nor the Congressional Leadership Fund – the top super PAC supporting House Republicans – are putting any resources into either race.
“I would have preferred if our candidate had raised money at a faster rate and gotten on TV quicker,” NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., told reporters earlier this month.
But Hudson added that Fine is “doing what he needs to do. He’s on TV now,” and emphasized, “we’re going to win the seat. I’m not concerned at all.”
Read the full article from Here
Tom Kirdahy is busy, and about to get busier.
Mr. Kirdahy, a Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer, has a slate of Broadway shows that includes “Gypsy” and “Hadestown.” His latest production, “Just in Time,” starring Jonathan Groff, opens this month.
Mr. Kirdahy, 61, lives alone in the Greenwich Village co-op apartment he shared with his late husband, the playwright Terrence McNally. In addition to his theater and film work — Mr. Kirdahy’s company, Tom Kirdahy Productions, is behind a new film adaptation of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” starring Jennifer Lopez — he runs the Terrence McNally Foundation, which supports early-career playwrights and L.G.B.T.Q. causes.
His Sundays are reserved for friends and family, including Jon Richardson, a composer and performer he is dating. When the two are not in Manhattan, they’re in Provincetown, Mass., where Mr. Richardson, 37, lives and Mr. Kirdahy has a weekend home.
NOT SO EARLY BIRD On a good Sunday morning I’ll get up at 8:30, which is later than the rest of the week. That’s my definition of sleeping in. The rest of the week I’m up before 7. If I wake up early, I force myself to go back to sleep.
FACING FACTS For several months now, I’ve been canceling my trainer at 9. I’ve discovered this is a pattern and I should just give up pretending. I hate to throw in the towel in print this way, but what this is telling me is that I need to get back to that routine. Spiritually, I go to the gym, but in actuality I lounge around.
MADMAN IN MANHATTAN One thing I do religiously is go to Madman Espresso for a triple skim cortado. It’s three shots of espresso and some steamed milk. It’s not nothing. Later in the day I’ll get a double espresso macchiato. But that’s only if I wake up in Manhattan. My home in Provincetown is my happy place. If I have 24 hours for myself on a weekend I’ll drive down at 10 at night and get there at 3 in the morning, just to spend the day.
FAMILY FIRST. NOT LITERALLY. I do a little work on Sunday mornings, just to catch up. It’s very specifically emailing, almost all of it tied to my productions. It can be weighing in on an advertising campaign or providing comments about a script or discussing fund-raising for a particular show. Then it’s family time, which could mean just having brunch with friends or Jon and I taking a walk through the city. My 94-year-old mother is still alive, and I try to call her every Sunday. She’s a snowbird — she’s either in St. Petersburg, Fla., or in Stony Brook, on Long Island.
CIVILIAN BESTIES I remain very close to people I went to high school and college with. I graduated high school on Long Island in 1981, and there’s a group of us that are still very tight. We text every day. None of them are in theater, but they love it and they come to every one of my openings. It’s nice having civilian besties. If we’re having brunch, I try to mix it up and not go to the same place all the time. I’ve lived in New York since 1981 and I’m still madly in love with it, with discovering new places.
TALKING POLITICS This sounds hokey, but the only thing I must have on Sundays is community. I need to see the people I love, and I like it when it’s people outside the industry. I have a deep interest in politics. I’ve been a bit of an activist my whole life. Before I became a Broadway producer, I was providing free legal services to people living with H.I.V. and AIDS. Terrence and I were marriage equality warriors. I try to nourish the political side of my soul on Sundays by talking with friends or seeing people from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center on 13th Street. We have a shared language.
SOBRIETY, SUSTENANCE I also try to get to an A.A. meeting on Sundays. That’s most often at the Center. They’re all different times. It’ll be 25 years in November that I’ve been sober. What I get out of meetings is the comfort of community. People share their wisdom. Hearing their stories sustains me and buoys me.
LIVING THE DREAM When “Just in Time” opens, I’ll have four shows running in New York. On Sundays, I might pop into a show and stand in the back of the theater and watch “Hadestown” and then go say hello to the cast. Same with “Gypsy” and “Little Shop of Horrors.” I love watching an audience take in a show. And I love the energy after a performance. The actors work so hard — I think it’s only fair that they see me with some frequency. I’m a cheerleader for both the industry and my own shows. I’m a kid from the suburbs who gets to go to work on Broadway. I take insane joy from that.
SET IN STONE On my building on Ninth Street there’s a plaque commemorating the fact that Terrence lived in the building. It’s a really great pleasure for me to watch people walk by and read about him. The doormen in my building just really loved him, and they love to report on stories of people reading it and looking at it. I often touch it when I walk in the building.
SHH… Late in the afternoon on my best Sundays I try to take a nap or at least create quiet time. I’ll listen to Bach or some classical music just to kind of rejuvenate. It’s not quite meditation, but it does involve a commitment to quiet. Bach reaches into my soul.
FRY AFICIONADO If Jon is in town he might cook, but I very often have dinner at the Knickerbocker, which is right nearby on University Place. The menu is pretty varied, but I often have steak and French fries. French fries are a key part of my life. If I had to choose the best ones, I might pick the Lambs Club on 44th Street. They’re cooked perfectly and salted perfectly. They’re what a French fry should be.
GOALS Every night before I go to bed I do at least an hour of work. On a Sunday night I’ll draft a bunch of emails I’ll send in the morning, because I don’t like to bother my employees on a Sunday night. The emails are about goals for the week. Prepping them helps me go to sleep, I think, because I’ll have done the work I’ve been obsessing about.
BOSTON — When the TD Garden announcer declared that Derrick White picked up a technical foul, the Celtics starter was immediately befuddled. He was confused as to why he picked up the tech as Jayson Tatum stood up from the C’s bench to celebrate the infraction.
The chaos was sorted through moments afterwards. Instead of a tech on White with 10:06 left in the Celtics’ win over the Suns, it was actually Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer who was assessed the foul. Tatum was clearly frustrated by it, throwing a bench into the second row of the Celtics bench. He explained why he acted like that after the win.
“I’m no stranger to getting techs,” Tatum said. “D-White has never got a tech since he’s been in the league. I don’t know if anybody’s ever seen the reference in ‘The Longest Yard’ and when they was doing the recruiting and Chris Rock was like, ‘Man, I got half a star.’ So I told D-White like, you gotta get one tech and get your street cred up. So I got excited when I thought he got a tech. I kind of campaigned for him to get one, one day. So we’ll see.”
Now, White does have a technical foul in his career — just one. It came on a play back on Jan. 22 against the Clippers. White went up to contest a shot and hit Amir Coffey in the face. So that was actually the first tech of White’s career after review.
But Tatum likely means he wants White to complain and earn a tech in a different fashion by jawing at the refs. As Tatum mentioned, he knows what it’s like to pick up technical fouls. He has a career-high 14 of them this season, two away from an automatic one-game suspension. Tatum also has 66 techs throughout his career.
Now, White probably prefers not to pick up those technical fouls. Each one of them costs $2,000 each to start and gets more expensive the more assessed over the course of the season. But it sounds like Tatum just wanted his pal to know what it’s like to give the referees an earful every now and then.
“It’s been a longtime discussion,” Tatum said. “We’ve been talking about this for a long time. I just heard technical foul D-White, so I got excited. I was going to go give him a huge hug or something.”
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