Bodybuilder gets max for beating child

Anthony Badalamenti, the personal trainer accused of severely beating his girlfriend's 6-year-old son with a belt in their Merrick apartment last October, was given the maximum sentence of seven years in prison last week. Jessica Muniz, the boy's mother, was sentenced to two years, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Badalamenti, 31, was convicted by a jury of three counts of second-degree assault, two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and endangering the welfare of a child. Muniz, 30, pleaded guilty to the same charges.

"I can think of no more hideous crime than the abuse of an innocent, defenseless child," Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said. "What they did to this boy was horrific, and they both deserve every last day of their prison sentences."

Badalamenti and Muniz were arrested last year when the landlord of their Meadowbrook Road apartment called police and reported hearing whipping sounds and a child's cries.

When police arrived, no one answered the door, and the Emergency Services Unit had to force entry into the apartment. Inside, authorities discovered the badly beaten boy with fresh cuts to his hands, legs, buttocks, groin and torso, as well older bruises on his body.

Police said he was beaten with two leather belts that had been altered "to administer punishment." One of the belts used to inflict the beating had its buckle removed, and the other was a three-inch weight-lifting belt that was partly covered in duct tape.

At the time of the arrest, the boy was rushed to an area hospital and placed in the custody of a relative.

Badalamenti was reportedly a bodybuilder and personal fitness trainer who gained brief fame in 2007 when Freeport police officer and former contestant of NBC's "Biggest Loser," Jim Germanakos, said the Merrick man helped him shed 186 pounds for the show and win the $100,000 at-home consolation prize. Germanakos's brother, Bill, made it to the show's Final Four.

Germanakos spoke glowingly of Badalamenti to CNN's Larry King in December 2007. Germanakos told King that Badalamenti was a former body builder and gym owner, adding, "He just did a hell of a job with me."

In February 2008, Germanakos told Livin' La Vida Low Carb, a blog site, that Badalamenti had served as his trainer for the final five and a half weeks leading to the "Biggest Loser" finale. For five months before that, Germanakos said he had trained at home on his own. Germanakos also said that Badalamenti was a national bodybuilding champion. Calls to the National Physique Committee, bodybuilding's governing body, turned up nothing on Badalamenti.

Newsday reported that Badalamenti's landlord, Joe Salerno, had said he was a personal trainer at Titans Fitness and Boxing Club in Merrick. But Doug Tator, the gym's manager, told the Herald that Badalamenti had never been employed there.

A second Newsday article reported that Badalamenti had told Salerno that he had bragged about taking part in Ultimate Fighting Championship matches. UFC spokeswoman Jennifer Wenk, though, told the Daily News that Badalamenti had no links to the mixed martial-arts association.

A 1996 New York Times article reported that Badalamenti, then 19 and living in Bellmore, was hospitalized after drinking homemade GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) that he and three friends concocted to enhance body-building performance. GHB, which stimulates release of growth hormones, was banned in the U.S. in 1990.