Coach in child abuse case loses job
Lazare “Adi” Adingono has lost his job as an assistant basketball coach at Canisius College and may serve time in jail as a result of an incident in which he hit his 4-year-old son with a belt.
Adingono, 31, pleaded guilty Thursday to a reduced misdemeanor charge of third-degree assault and a child endangerment charge for the Jan. 15 incident in the family’s Lafayette Avenue home.
State Supreme Court Justice Deborah A. Haendiges can order the Cameroon native to serve up to a year in jail but did not give him a sentencing commitment. The judge allowed him to remain free on a previously posted $50,000 bail bond.
Rosanne Eimer Johnson, chief of the Erie County district attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, told the judge the former University of Rhode Island basketball star was not indicted or forced to plead guilty to a felony charge because his son suffered no permanent injuries or body marks.
The prosecutor also cited the currently unemployed Adingono’s lack of a prior criminal or child abuse record and the sentencing latitude the judge enjoys in recommending the acceptance of the plea deal.
Adingono, an assistant coach of the Canisius College men’s basketball team for the past three years, was replaced Wednesday by Western New York native Desmond Oliver. He could not be reached to comment following the plea proceeding.
He will be sentenced Sept. 17.
The boy and his younger sister are now living in Providence, R. I., with their mother, Maureen. Johnson declined to comment on the status of the marital relationship.
After Rhode Island authorities contacted Buffalo police, Adingono was arrested Feb. 10 by Detectives Jacqueline Sullivan and Karyn Carney of the police Sex Offense Squad on charges of felony assault and child endangerment and briefly was jailed.
Adingono had been granted a leave of absence from his Canisius job late in February, but Wednesday the college announced his replacement with Oliver, a former DeSales High School star. Adingono was a member of the Cameroon national basketball team before starring at the University of Rhode Island.
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