Crime Watch

Baldwin man pleads guilty to strangulation charge

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A Baldwin man has pleaded guilty to strangling and assaulting the mother of his children in their home in May 2014, Acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced on Monday.

Scott Ford, 46, was indicted last June on seven charges, including:

n Second-degree strangulation

n Second-degree assault

n Aggravated criminal contempt

n Aggravated family offense

n First-degree criminal contempt

n Criminal obstruction of breathing or circulation.

n Third-degree assault.

Ford pleaded guilty to all counts on the indictment before Acting Supreme Court Justice Christopher Quinn.

The Nassau County district attorney’s office is recommending that Ford be sentenced to five years in prison. He remains in custody, and is due back in court for sentencing on Sept. 17.

“Defendant Scott Ford was in violation of an order of protection when he brutally and senselessly attacked his girlfriend,” said Singas, a former chief of the D.A.’s office’s Special Victims Bureau. “Domestic violence is a scourge on our communities, and we will do everything in our power to put abusers like Scott Ford in prison.”

Ford was drinking before he choked the woman and banged her head against a sink, injuring her neck and cutting the back of her head, Singas said. The victim lost consciousness during the attack. She had a May 2011 order of protection against Ford.

Ford was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department on May 26, 2014.

Human Trafficking Unit Chief Amanda Burke and Assistant District Attorney Chantee Dempsey, both of the Special Victims Bureau, prosecuted the case. Ford was represented by William Shanahan, who could not be reached for comment at press time.