Legal Battle Ends: Former Babysitter Withdraws Lawsuit Over Molestation Allegations

A former babysitter has abandoned her lawsuit against a New York lady who she claimed caused her emotional pain by informing others that she had sexually molested the woman’s son.

According to court documents filed this week, Maureen Sartain consented to dismiss her action with prejudice, which means she cannot bring the same claim in the same court.

Sartain claimed that Marie Sinclair purposefully caused her emotional pain by sending messages to Sartain’s friends and family, as well as the parents of any children she may have cared for, informing them that Sartain had molested Sinclair’s now-adult son while she babysat him as a toddler. Some legal experts were surprised by the nature of the complaint and the fact that it was set to go to trial because Sartain did not sue Sinclair for defamation, which would have required her to prove that the remark in question was incorrect.

Sartain has denied interviews through her attorney, Scott Mishkin, who did not immediately respond to demands for comment on Thursday. Mishkin previously pointed NBC News to Sartain’s deposition from last year, during which she denied assaulting Sinclair’s son, Joseph Sinclair.

The action centres on posts Sinclair posted to at least a dozen people on Facebook in 2020, accusing Sartain of being a paedophile who had raped her son. Sinclair had also sent a message to Sartain. The lawsuit, filed in 2021, stated that Sartain was “devastated to see that she was being accused of such conduct and was even more mortified over the fact that this false allegation was being sent to her friends and family.”

About two weeks after sending the texts, Sinclair got a cease-and-desist letter from Sartain’s attorney, requesting that she “immediately publish an apology for her false statements.”

Sartain sued Sinclair three months later, in February 2021. Sartain’s case was exceptional in that, although denying the charges, she did not sue Sinclair or her son for defamation.

Sartain testified in her deposition that she babysat for many families in Smithtown, Long Island, from about 1990 to 2002.

Joseph Sinclair, 28, first alerted his parents about the alleged abuse in 2016. He earlier told NBC News that Sartain assaulted him from the age of eight to around thirteen. He stated that he has never taken criminal or civil action against her because his primary goal has been to heal.

In her deposition and interviews with NBC News, Sinclair stated that her aim in sending the texts was to warn people about Sartain’s character and to protect other children from harm. She stated on Thursday that she believed she had done so successfully.

Sinclair said she and her family are relieved that the lawsuit has been dismissed.

“She victimized us in addition to our son because of what she put us through for the last four years,” Sinclair stated. “But I knew deep down in my heart, she was never going to win.”