‘Biggest Loser’ Trainer Gets 7 Years in Prison for Beating Girlfriend’s 6-Year-Old Son with Belt

Badalamenti gets maximum; Muniz sentenced to 2 years

MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Anthony Badalamenti, a trainer on NBC’s reality weight-loss series, “The Biggest Loser,” has been sentenced to the maximum of seven years in prison for beating his girlfriend’s 6-year-old son multiple times with a belt.

Badalamenti, 31, of Glen Cove, was convicted by a jury in June of three counts of Assault in the Second Degree, two misdemeanor counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree, and Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

Badalamenti’s girlfriend, Jessica Muniz, 30, was sentenced last week to two years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges.

Rice said that on October 31, 2008, Badalamenti’s landlord called 911 after hearing Muniz’s six-year-old son’s cries for help and what the landlord said sounded like whipping noises. Muniz, Badalamenti and her son shared an apartment in a Merrick home. Police responded and found the boy with lacerations and severe bruising on his legs and buttocks, requiring hospitalization.

“I can think of no more hideous crime than the abuse of an innocent, defenseless child,” Rice said. “What they did to this boy was horrific and they both deserve every last day of their prison sentences.”

Handling the case for the District Attorney's Office is Assistant District Attorney Silvia Finkelstein of the Special Victims Bureau. Badalamenti is represented by Thomas Liotti, Esq.