By Chris Fuchs
Rosemary Zephirin was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child, said Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney's office.
De Bourbon said Zephirin allegedly had attacked her daughter to force her to pray and that she sprinkled laundry detergent on her to ward off evil spirits.
Zephirin did not enter a plea to the charges Sunday and was ordered by a judge to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at Elmhurst Hospital, de Bourbon said. Her next court date is Dec. 26. If convicted, Zephirin faces up to seven years in prison, the district attorney's office said.
The police received a call around 9 a.m. Saturday to investigate a flood at Zephirin's home at 110-24 213th St., said Sgt. James Foley, a police spokesman. When the police arrived, he said, the landlord met them out front and let them in.
Soon after, the sergeant said, one police officer saw Zephirin, a 350-pound woman, lying on her daughter, allegedly trying to suffocate her. The police pulled Zephirin off the girl and took the 12-year-old, who was unconscious for a brief time, to North Shore Hospital, the sergeant said.
As the officers brought the child out of the house, Zephirin threw “heavy objects” and cans of detergent at the police, said Detective Nate Vincent of the 105th Precinct. The police then sealed off the house and waited for emergency service officers to arrive to arrest the woman, he said.
Many of the residents on 213th Street said they did not know much about Zephirin or about the incident that unfolded early Saturday morning on the tranquil block in Bellaire.
Joyce Wessley, a next door neighbor of Zephirin, said she was still sleeping when the police were called to Zephirin's house. She said she was not sure whether Zephirin was married, but she would often see Zephirin leave the house with her daughter.
“She was very quiet,” Wessley said. Wessley, a 20-year resident of 213th Street, added that Zephirin had been living on the block for about six months.
Early Saturday night, all of the lights at Zephirin's 2-1/2-story white stucco house were off. Like all of the houses on 213th Street, Zephirin's has a front lawn and is detached. Five bags of leaves were stacked atop one another outside the house, and a van was parked in the driveway. The landlord, who Wessley said often stops by the house, did not answer the door Saturday night.
The district attorney's office did not have the name of Zephirin's attorney.
