MY MOM’S AGONY
Son in court relives Harlem cart-toss horror
The son of a Manhattan philanthropist who was nearly killed by a shopping cart thrown from a mall overpass broke down on the witness stand as he recalled trying to save his mom.
“It knocked her over, and I didn’t really know what was happening,” recounted Dayton Hedges, 19, who was speaking publicly for the first time about the 2011 incident in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday.
“I went to pick her up, and she was just covered in blood,” Dayton (inset) said, his voice quavering.
“I started yelling and trying to get help for my mom,” he said.
A passing medical resident revived Marion Hedges’ heart in the parking lot of the East River Plaza mall in East Harlem.
Her injuries that day left her with permanent brain damage.
Dayton, 13 at the time, told the jury about the accident’s aftermath.
“I’ve been very scared,” the NYU freshman said, choking back tears. “For a while and still occasionally I would have nightmares and trouble sleeping,” he said, describing one particularly harrowing dream.
“I’d be at school and I’d be walking down the stairs with my friends, and then the staircase would just collapse on me,” he said through tears.
Dayton said he regrets not being able to protect his mom, a former Junior League member and realestate broker.
“I think about whether there was something I could do. I don’t want to say I wish it was me, but I wish it wasn’t her. I wish it happened to nobody,” he said.
Dayton was at the mall buying Halloween candy for poor kids with his mom when two unruly teens pushed a Target cart over an eighth-story walkway. They pleaded guilty in 2012 and served time in juvenile facilities.
Dayton described his mom — who had awoken at dawn that morning to drive him to a lacrosse game on Long Island — as “wonder woman” before the incident left her brain-damaged.
“She has to force herself out of bed every morning. She’s sad,” he said, adding that his mom can no longer work or volunteer because of her failing short-term memory.
Marion, 53, her husband, Michael, 55, and their son are suing the mall and its security company for unspecified damages. They previously settled with Target for an undisclosed amount.
During cross-examination, mall attorney Mathew Ross tried to argue that Dayton wasn’t really shaken by the traumatic episode.
Ross asked about a trip Dayton took with a friend’s family to the Caribbean in 2012.
“You had a good time, is that fair?” Ross asked
“I had a pretty good time there but again you’ve got to remember, I was alone with someone else’s family. I think I would have much rather preferred to be with my own,” Dayton said.
The trial is expected to run through mid-June.