Woman Beaten With Cane In Ocean County Was Threatened By Son, Affidavit Says

MANCHESTER, NJ — A Manchester Township woman whose son is accused of beating her with her cane told a friend he threatened her and that he wanted her dead the day before he beat her, according to documents filed in the case.

The 71-year-old woman, who was still conscious when Manchester Township police responded to a 911 call to the house, told police her son had beaten her because he believed she had called police on him after he had an argument with his daughter.

Joseph M. Cavallaro, 44, has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon in the attack that happened June 27, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. Read more: Woman, 71, Critical After Son Beats Her With A Cane: Ocean Prosecutor

Police found the woman in the bathroom on her back with obvious injuries, disoriented and bleeding from her face, and complaining of pain in her back, according to the affidavit.

"I don't want to die," she told police, after telling them how Cavallaro accused her of calling the police after his argument with his daughter, in spite of telling him she had not called police. Her son then hit her in the face and hit her with her cane, the affidavit said.

As the woman was being taken by ambulance to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, she started vomiting blood and became unconscious, the affidavit said.

She suffered fractures to the bones around her eye, cuts to her face and head, trauma to her brain and "injuries consistent with suffocation," the affidavit said. She was unconscious, sedated and intubated in the intensive care unit at Jersey Shore, the affidavit said.

Manchester police were called to the home at 12:17 p.m. June 27 by a neighbor who was walking his dog when the woman, who appeared to be crying, frantically gestured for the man to come over to her, the affidavit said. As the man walked over, a man — later identified as Cavallaro — came outside and ushered the woman back into the house, indicating he was trying to help her, the affidavit said.

When police arrived, they found blood on the front porch and saw broken glass and items thrown about the living area, the affidavit said. Police knocked on the door but no one responded, and as they waited for a response, they saw someone covering a window with a blanket, the affidavit said.

That prompted officers to force entry into the house, where they started to yell for the occupants to show themselves, the affidavit said. Cavallaro emerged and told police, "an incident happened my mom," the affidavit said. He was taken outside while police continued to search the home.

Outside, he told police he needed medical assistance and was taken to the hospital. The prosecutor's office has said he will be taken to the Ocean County Jail when he is released from treatment.

Police then found the woman in the bathroom.

In addition to the woman's statement, police spoke with a friend of the woman who said the woman texted her on June 26 saying Cavallaro wanted the woman dead and had threatened to burn her home down if she contacted the state Division of Child Permanency and Protection over the argument he had with his daughter, the affidavit said. The affidavit does not indicate the age of the daughter.

The day of the beating, the woman texted her friend saying her son was breaking things around the house, the affidavit said.

Authorities later took swabs of blood from various spots in the home, along with a fiberglass and metal cane, an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy phone, along with a kitchen knife, during execution of a search warrant later that day, the affidavit said.