Police: Family members brutally assaulted grandmother, 77, over volume of football game
Police say a family dispute over the volume of Sunday's Steelers game broadcast inside a Pennsylvania home led to a two-day-long assault on a 77-year-old grandmother for which her daughter and granddaughter are jailed and facing charges.
The alleged victim's 40-year-old daughter, Delores Marie Amorino, and 17-year-old granddaughter, Sarah Amorino, are charged with aggravated and simple, criminal conspiracy, terroristic threats, false imprisonment, and harrassment against 77-year-old grandmother Delores Ruth Amorino, who shares the home with them.
"They took a scarf, tied it around her neck, dragged her around the house. She was beaten with a metal broom handle. They shaved her head," said Trooper Stephen Limani, of the Pennsylvania state police.
The grandmother has difficulty hearing. When the daughter and granddaughter turned down the TV volume of the Steelers broadcast, the grandmother went to listen to the game on the radio in her locked bedroom. That's when the daughter and granddaughter allegedly broke into the bedroom, with the granddaughter hitting her grandmother with the metal broom handle on the face, back of her head and chest. The daughter allegedly twisted her arm and stomped on her foot. The grandmother's injuries were badly bruised and swollen and the assault allegedly continued on Monday. The criminal complaint said the daughter told the victim she would beat her more if she kept complaining about being beaten.
"That's pretty ridiculous. That's disgusting," neighbor Stephanie Vogt told Pittsburgh's Action News 4. "I can't even fathom to imagine what she would have (gone through.)"
"During the course of two days, she was the victim of a brutal beat-down and (held) hostage, for lack of a better term, to the house where she was imprisoned," said Limani.
Police say the daughter and granddaughter threatened to hunt down the grandmother and beat her again if she got away from the house.
Limani said the grandmother slipped out of her home while her daughter and granddaughter were sleeping and walked to the Youngwood borough building on Tuesday morning for help. A borough employee called police.
Delores Ruth Amorino was kept at a hospital for medical observation Tuesday night.
"She was being held captive in her own house by her family members after being beaten, and then subsequently she had to hike almost a half a mile before she came to what she thought to be a safe place," Limani said. "It's very deplorable and unbelievable, the acts that were committed and luckily, she was able to escape."
Limani said the victim told police she was forced by to write a note saying it was someone else who assaulted her.
"She was forced to write that note, so apparently there was some premeditation on their part after the end, to try and cover up their tracks," Limani said.
Sarah Amorino and Delores Marie Amorino are being held in Westmoreland County Jail. Bail is set at $200,000 for each. They'll face a judge Sept. 1 for a preliminary hearing.