2nd Arrest Made in Brutal Attack at East Hampton Farm

State police have made a second arrest in a brutal attack at a horse farm in East Hampton last September that left a woman clinging to life.

Lisa Rader, 58, was attacked at White Birch Farm, in East Hampton, on September 16 and said she was left for dead.

She was hit with a cast-iron pot and struck 41 times with a fireplace stoker, which caused nerve damage to the left side of her face, she told NBC Connecticut last month, shortly after her son-in-law, Matthew M. Frick, 28, of Portland, was arrested in connection with the attack. She also had a skull fracture, other broken bones and at least 20 lacerations to her skull.

On Monday, state police said they arrested James J. McMahon Jr., 48. According to the affidavit, McMahon worked as a dishwasher at Stadium Burgers and Brews, the bar Frick owns, and Frick hired McMahon Jr. to kill his mother-in-law and paid him $1,000.

McMahon Jr. was arrested on an outstanding warrant and charged with criminal attempt to commit murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault,  first-degree assault, home invasion and first-degree burglary.

A Portland man is facing charges in connection with the brutal attack that left his mother-in-law clinging to life at her farm in East Hampton last September.

Rader previously said she believes her son-in-law tried to kill her at her farm as part of an ongoing dispute with her daughter, who runs a farm in Portland. The properties share a name: White Birch Farm.

"I was asleep, kicked the door open, came in, started hitting me. I jumped up out of the bed, tripped over the foot of the bed, was cowered on the floor between the bed and the wood stove. I had my hands over my head. I said, 'OK, that’s enough, you can stop,' and I woke up in St. Francis," she recalled. "He left me for dead."

Bond for McMahon was set at $1 million and he was arraigned in Middletown Superior Court on Monday on charges including attempted murder.

Frick was charged with aiding and abetting first-degree assault, aiding and abetting to commit home invasion and aiding and abetting to commit first-degree burglary.

Another arrest is expected, accoridng to state police. 
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