L.I. dad accused of slapping girl, 11, at soccer game faces up to 1 year behind bars
A Long Island father accused of slapping an 11-year-old girl during a youth football game was acquitted Tuesday of assault but found guilty of child endangerment.
Michael Stallone, a 44-year-old Floral Park resident, was filmed storming onto the field after a collision between the girl and his daughter during a September 2024 soccer game in Uniondale.
The video appeared to show Stallone shoving the preteen, and prosecutors said he backhanded her in the face. During the trial, jurors were shown a photo of the girl with a red mark under her right eye.
But after just over an hour of deliberation Tuesday following the weeklong trial, the jury returned with a split verdict, Newsday reported. Stallone faces a maximum of one year in prison at his sentencing hearing on February 3.
“I think they separated the baby,” defense attorney Marc Gann told Newsday. “It doesn’t really shock me. I knew that the hardest charge to refute would be the charge of endangering the welfare of a child, because it’s a pretty amorphous charge.”
A seven-second clip of the controversial play shows the girl throwing Stallone’s daughter to the ground in the middle of the court. It then shows Stallone running and making contact with the girl, who doubles over in pain.
“Not guilty?” the girl’s father shouted outside the courtroom, according to Newsday. “What did she do wrong? Tell me? Play the sport she loved? This [expletive] is he not guilty of hitting my child on a football field? Nobody understands.
