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‘Hot Dog Lady of Long Island' Says Sons Were Acting in Self-Defense in Park Beating

What to Know

  • Cathy Scalia pleaded guilty to prostitution in 2012 after she was arrested for offering sex out of her hot dog truck
  • Scalia's sons were among four people arrested in the beating and pepper-spraying of two teens at a Long Island park
  • Scalia says her sons were acting in self-defense and that the teens had been harassing her family and vandalizing her property

The teenage sons of Long Island's infamous "hot dog lady" were among four people arrested in a gang assault over the weekend, police said.

Cathy Scalia’s sons — 18-year-olds Brandon and Robert Battaglia — are among the four people charged with pepper-spraying, kicking and beating two teens with bats at Marjorie Lane Bay Park in East Rockaway on Sunday afternoon. Avante Lester, 24, and a 16-year-old girl were also charged.

The group allegedly sprayed the victims’ eyes with pepper spray and then used wooden and metal baseball bats to beat them. In a criminal complaint, police said the victims were “attacked relentlessly.” Police have not released a motive.

Scalia said the two teens that her sons are accused of attacking have been vandalizing her property and harassing her family all week. She says her sons were acting in self-defense.

“They came here, they bashed my mailbox down, they threw my lion down, they bashed windows,” Scalia said. “The cops are here every day.”

Scalia said the teens told her sons to meet them at Bay Park before the beating.

“They said to me, ‘We’re gonna get your son.’ I said, ‘I’m put you’re a-- in jail,” Scalia said. “I don’t know what happened after that.”

Prosecutors say one of the teens was so badly injured in the attack that he needed 15 staples in his scalp.

When asked about the charges against her sons, Scalia said: “You gotta have tapes, you gotta have proof.”

Scalia has made headlines as “the hot dog lady of Long Island.” She pleaded guilty to prostitution in 2012 after cops arrested her for offering sex from her hot dog truck.

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