Roosevelt man cleared of manslaughter in mother's death, but defense wants lesser charges dismissed as well

A Roosevelt man cleared of causing his mother's death during an altercation in the family home asked a Nassau County judge to set aside his conviction on endangering the welfare of an elderly person, arguing that if the evidence doesn't support the manslaughter counts, it can't support the other charges.

Michael Rainford McDougall, 67, was accused of putting his 85-year-old mother, Carmel McDougall, in a headlock and throwing her to the ground on Sept. 12, 2024, causing her death almost a week later.

Nassau County prosecutors said that in-home video monitoring captured the son putting his mother in a grappling move and hurtling her to the ground, causing head injuries.

She died of organ failure brought on by catastrophic brain injury, prosecutors said.

Her daughter, Nicole Mullins, 57, was also charged at the same time and eventually pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of an elderly person.

Prosecutors said that the home video monitoring also caught prior instances of Mullins constricting "her mother’s ability to move and breathe."

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said that the brother and sister had grown frustrated with their mother’s declining health. The aging woman suffered from dementia, according to prosecutors.

After a two-week trial ending on Aug. 3, the jury voted to acquit Michael McDougall on the more serious charges but convicted him on two counts — endangering the welfare of a physically incompetent person and endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person.

Defense attorney David Haber requested that State Supreme Court Justice Robert McDonald set aside the endangering charges, arguing that if the jury acquitted his client of manslaughter, they couldn’t logically convict him on the lesser charges.

"It's our position that when the jury found him guilty of an endangering on that date, that it was inconsistent or repugnant with the verdict the jury had already returned of not guilty," Haber told Newsday on Monday after a brief hearing.

Haber pointed out that an autopsy showed that the elderly woman, a former dietitian at Caledonian Hospital in Brooklyn, had no significant physical injuries to her body and therefore could not have died from any harm caused by being hurled to the ground by her son.

"If the jury did not hold my client responsible for that injury, then there should have been a not-guilty verdict on the endangering charge," he said.

Nassau County prosecutor Veronica Guariglia disagreed with Haber’s interpretation of the evidence presented at the trial.

In a motion to oppose setting aside the verdict, she said hat Dr. Brian O’Reilly, a deputy medical examiner at the Nassau County Medical Examiner’s Office, testified that Carmel MacDougal died from "respiratory failure due to right subdural hemorrhage due to blunt force trauma to the head."

O’Reilly said that bleeding in her skull caused by her head hitting the floor put pressure on her brain, causing her organ failure.

He noted that observers reported that "she could no longer stand up on her own, could barely speak/had slurred speech, could not keep her eyes open/maintain consciousness, and had stiff and immovable arms and legs: all of which prove serious physical injury."

The judge is expected to issue a written ruling on the request to set aside the verdict by the next court date on Oct. 19.