City Limits

Baby yanked from couple for kisses on belly button

The ordeal is finally over, but for the past year, a North Carolina family has been torn apart after state officials claimed family photos of a father kissing his baby's belly button were some kind of child abuse.

It began when Teresa Hamaty took impromptu party snapshots of her husband, Charbel, playfully embracing their naked, newborn son, Kristoff.


After dropping the film off at an Eckerd store in North Raleigh, authorities were notified.

"You see the back of the baby, and like if someone is kissing the baby's belly button," Teresa told WRAL-TV.

But police saw the worst and arrested Teresa for taking sexually explicit photos, charged her husband with felony sexual assault, and put Kristoff and his half-sister in protective custody.

"I think this was one of those times that they got the wrong people," Teresa said. "They were too quick to judge when they took one look at my husband."

Mr. Hamaty