NY1 Reporter Denies Wife Beating Charges, Put On Leave

Dominic Carter, NY1's senior political reporter and host of "Inside City Hall," appeared in Rockland Family Court, denying charges that he repeatedly assaulted his wife. And Marilyn Carter also told the judge that her husband did not beat her—actually, she says, it was a day laborer whose name she doesn't know.

The Daily News reports that she "drew a blank when asked to name her mysterious attacker, but said she picked him up on Route 59," saying, "You don't ask a laborer his name. You ask a laborer to work." However, when Marilyn Carter had given a statement to the police regarding the October 22, 2008 incident where Carter allegedly punched, choked, and hit her, the Post says she told them her husband "called her 'dumb,' 'stupid,' and 'retarded,' and that he also called her a 'dumb project bitch' whom he had no respect for." There is also a 911 call where she says Carter hit her—audio below.

And Marilyn Carter's brother Larry Steves had railed against the journalist, telling reporters, "It been going on for over 20 years, physical abuse, verbal abuse. It’s been kind of messed up for years. It’s been an ongoing thing, Marilyn covered it up for many years, and as her kids got older they started complaining about it. I’ve seen her with a black eye ... everyone knew what was going on." Stevens added that Carter had two children out of wedlock with a high school sweetheart.

Carter, who said yesterday, "I will be exonerated in court, this is all a big misunderstanding. I never touched my, I never hit my wife. I did not cause those injuries to my wife," allegedly told a judge last December to give him a break because he was a "high-profile journalist" who "appeared on the cover of The New York Times and TV Guide" and "covered the state attorney general and the chief judge of the court," adding, If "my political enemies" find out, "it will end up in the Daily News." (The judge told him to stop the name-dropping.)