Dad accused of poisoning girl has record

The Queens man accused of poisoning his 2-year-old daughter in a murder-suicide attempt pleaded guilty last March to criminal contempt after he violated an order of protection by assaulting the mother of the child.

The order against Khemchan Sulaiman, 45, of 159th Street in Jamaica, first issued July 13, 2010, was then extended by Queens Supreme Court Justice William Harrington to March 7, 2016, according to a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney's office.

The circumstances leading up to the original order of protection could not be obtained last night.

According to court documents, Sulaiman last January punched the child's mother, whom Newsday is not identifying, in "the face and body and kicked her about the stomach, causing a swollen lip and arm" while she was holding the couple's daughter, Priya. The woman told officials that Sulaiman pointed a knife at her and threatened to kill her with it, court papers say.

Court documents say Sulaiman told police, "I slapped her twice."

On Monday about 10 a.m., Sulaiman and his daughter were found unconscious and in respiratory distress in a car behind a shopping mall in Lawrence. The girl has recovered and left the hospital this week.

Sulaiman was arraigned on charges of attempted murder at St. John's Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway Wednesday afternoon and remanded without bail. He was transferred Wednesday to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

Sulaiman faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. He is represented by Legal Aid and is due back in court Friday.

Sulaiman was charged Jan. 12 with first- and second-degree criminal contempt, third-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree menacing and endangering the welfare of a child, according to a complaint filed in Queens Criminal Court.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal contempt on March 8 in Queens Criminal Court. Sulaiman received a conditional discharge and was ordered to attend a batterer's intervention program, the spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney said.