Originally Posted - July 27, 2006

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NORTH CREEK---Sheriff Larry Cleveland and the Warren County Sheriff's Department have lost another case.

Warren County Court Judge John S. Hall has dismissed charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide lodged against Amy L. Campbell, 33, of North Creek, ruling that there was insufficient evidence that the death of the 7-week-old baby boy on Feb. 2 was criminal.

A charge of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, will stand.

A grand jury had returned an indictment against Campbell in March, charging that she had acted recklessly on Feb. 2, causing the death of Dominic Marseglia as they slept in her bed while Campbell was allegedly under the influence of prescription medication and alcohol.

In his decision, Hall wrote that "without a scintilla of proof that the infant died of something other than natural causes, the proof presented to the grand jury was not sufficient". The indictment had been returned before the district attorney's office had received the final autopsy report which said that a cause of death could not be determined but the death was consistent with suffocation. However, forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica said that he could not classify it as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The district attorney's office could appeal Hall's ruling and could also present the case to another grand jury in an attempt to seek another indictment. District Attorney Kate Hogan said she hasn't decided what avenue she will pursue, if any.

Campbell is being represented by John Wappett of the Warren County public defender office, the former first assistant district attorney for Warren County. Campbell has said that she will also contest the misdemeanor charge, saying that she did nothing wrong.

Police brought the charges because they said Campbell had reportedly been warned by a public health nurse and a nurse at Glens Falls Hospital not to mix alcohol and her medication and not to sleep in the same bed as the child.

Police said that she told them she had consumed about two six packs of beer after ingesting Zoloft, an anti-depressant, the night the infant died.

Campbell could have faced up to 15 years in prison if she had been convicted of second degree manslaughter. If found guilty of the endangerment charge, she could be sentenced up to a year in jail. She has been free on her own recognizance since April when the final autopsy report concluded the cause of death could not be determined.

She is required to continue treatment for substance abuse and/or alcohol addiction and comply with a 9 p.m. curfew.

In early March, a Johnsburg town justice had dismissed manslaughter charges against Campbell. The town justice had ruled that the district attorney's office had failed to prove all the elements necessary to bring the felony charges which had been lodged against Campbell by the Warren County Sheriff's Department.

Hogan's office then presented the case to a grand jury which indicted Campbell. After pleading not guilty, Campbell was held in jail, being unable to raise the $30,000 cash bail or bond.

Campbell is the mother of seven other children who are in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She reportedly had lost custody of those children due to allegations of substance abuse and child neglect. She had moved to the area last year with the baby's father, John Marselia. He was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, for leaving Campbell alone with the child knowing that she was allegedly intoxicated. 7-27-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette