Man accused in mom's beating faces prison

A North Massapequa man accused of beating his 84-year-old mother with a cordless telephone last December after she threatened to call 911 was acquitted of assault charges Thursday, but convicted of criminal possession of a weapon and other charges.

John Norton, 60, faces up to 7 years in prison when Nassau County Court Judge Tammy Robbins sentences him Sept. 12. A jury acquitted him of second-degree assault but convicted him of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of second-degree attempted assault and fourth-degree criminal mischief.

Norton's lawyer, Roxanne Paquette, of St. James, said her client plans to appeal the conviction.

"There were many issues in this case that deprived my client of a fair trial," she said. "We're going to pursue those to the highest levels of the courts."

Prosecutors said Norton attacked his mother this past New Year's Eve after she threatened to call police to the home they shared on Mohawk Drive. Norton took the cordless telephone out of his mother's hand and hit her on the back of the head with it, knocking her to the ground and cutting her head, prosecutors said. Norton then kicked her on her left thigh while she was on the floor, causing massive bruising, prosecutors said.

Norton's mother ran to a neighbor's house, prosecutors said. The neighbor then called police.

Paquette said she believes the jury acquitted Norton on the assault charge because neither the victim nor medical testimony in the case showed that the victim was injured seriously enough to meet the legal requirements.Norton was living at his mother's house while on probation for a 2010 felony-level aggravated drunken-driving conviction, prosecutors said.

"The brutality needed to beat your own mother over the head, and then kick her while she lies bloody on the ground, demands that this defendant be locked in a prison cell," Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.