Al D’Amato’s wife plans to show a hidden cell-phone video of her estranged husband hurling expletives at her as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from neck surgery at their custody trial next month.
“Go f—k yourself!” D’Amato, a three-term Republican senator from Long Island, rants in the 8-minute video taken last March, as his bedridden wife Katuria Smith sobs and begs him to stop yelling.
Smith showed reporters the footage at her divorce attorney’s office Wednesday. They plan to show the recording in court on April 11 in Nassau County Supreme Court.
D’Amato, 80, who served in the Senate from 1981-1999, and Smith, 52, are battling for custody of their 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. A judge has temporarily granted the ex-senator primary custody of the children pending the custody trial.
Smith says the video — where D’Amato screams at his wife, “You do two s—ts and a holler for me. I’m an old f—king man you want to get rid of. And I understand it. Go f—k yourself”— proves her claims that the ex-pol was a verbally abusive husband.
Smith surreptitiously shot the video from her hospital bed at Manhattan’s Mt. Sinai hospital where she’d had spinal surgery following a car accident. At the time the husband and wife were arguing about who was going to sign up their 10-year-old son for little league, Smith said.
“He’s kind of known as a bully, but it was always a drama queen kind of bully thing,” she said.
“He’s just rage-filled. He’s an angry person,” she said, impersonating her estranged hubby by cursing and gesticulating wildly.
“He goes out in the street and kicks the air and screams. He screams at everyone, by the way, just, I’m the biggest target,” Smith said.
Her lawyer, Tom Liotta, added, “Here’s a politician who’s trying to protect his public image while speaking privately to his wife and screaming at her and yelling at her and fighting with her and arguing with her, but she’s not fighting back. All she’s saying is, ‘Please stop.’”
D’Amato’s attorney, Stephen Gassman, declined to comment on the video because he said it hasn’t yet been received as evidence in court.
D’Amato, who earned the moniker “Sen. Pothole” for his attention to constituent services while in Congress, sued Smith for custody of the kids last October after she filed for divorce.
The trial is expected to conclude by mid-April.
