Soccer dad's alleged slap of 11-year-old 'forever' changed girl's love of the sport, prosecutor says as assault trial opens

An 11-year-old girl's love and enthusiasm for soccer was shattered forever, Nassau County prosecutors said Thursday, after a Floral Park dad rushed onto the playing field last fall and allegedly slapped her in the face after she collided with another player during a youth game.

"This defendant, with absolutely no justification, stormed onto the field with one purpose: to attack an 11-year-old child," Assistant District Attorney Chase LaMagna said in District Court during opening arguments of the misdemeanor assault case against Michael Stallone, 44.

Stallone, a landscaper whose daughters were playing for the opposing team, was charged with acting in a manner injurious to a minor and misdemeanor assault in the third degree.

His attorney, Marc Gann, admitted that his client erred in going onto the field, but he said Stallone intended to help the child, not to injure her.

"I am not suggesting by any means and by any statement that Michael Stallone should have stepped onto that field. He shouldn’t have, but that’s not a crime," the lawyer said.

Gann said it was "a rough game" and that one of Stallone's daughters, a goaltender, had already been taken out of the game after she was kicked in the face. Stallone's other daughter was not involved in the incident.

"This is a father whose child was on the other end of the playing field. It was a rough game; he saw a child was hurt and he went onto the field to help," Gann said.

The defense lawyer played a 7-second cellphone video to the jury, showing the interaction between the dad and the girl, and said it proves the interaction with the child was not the crime that the district attorney charged.

LaMagna said it was a cool day on Sept. 28, 2024, when the girl woke up excited to play the match for the SUSA League’s 12-and-under girls’ team. They were facing off against the Long Island Soccer Club.

The girl "woke up with joy and excitement, because it was game day," the prosecutor said. "She would get to do what she loved."

The sixth grader was a dominant player on the field.

"Everyone was playing hard, but they were getting along. They were playing competitively, but respectfully," the prosecutor said.

He said at the beginning of the second half, the girl and a player for the other team went for the ball at the same time and the opposing player ended up on the ground.

"This defendant, a grown man, lunged onto the field, rushed at [the girl], striking her in the face," LaMagna said. "This is when [the girl's] love and passion for the game changed forever."

The prosecutor said Stallone "looked directly in her eyes and screamed in her face" as the girl’s parents and younger brother looked on in horror.

The mother immediately called the police.

The prosecutor said the mother could see the fear in her daughter’s face and the red mark left from Stallone’s strike. He promised the jury that they would hear testimony from the mother, daughter and coach that back up the account.

LaMagna maintains that the 7-second cellphone video proves that Stallone assaulted the girl.

"She will now live in fear and insecurity," the prosecutor said.

Gann agreed that the girl did show signs of injury, but he said it wasn’t from his client, adding that it was the result of the collision with the other player.

"She literally gets laid out, her right shoulder into her and right to the ground," Gann said. "The injury that she sustained, whatever that may be, did not come from Mr. Stallone; it came from the impact with the other young lady."

The Long Island Soccer Club performed its own investigation of the incident last year, according to an email to Newsday, and decided to indefinitely ban Stallone from the league, saying that they have a "zero tolerance" for parent behaviors that "undermine player safety or sportsmanship."

Still, Stallone’s lawyer said his client’s actions had been misinterpreted.

"There was no intent to hurt anybody, to injure anybody, no intent to endanger her in any way," Gann said.