Lalare Brown, 76 and senile, was covered in maggots and excrement, and was extensively scarred with marks from a stun gun when her son took her to the New York University Medical Center on Saturday.

Staff at the hospital in New York told Newark police it was among the worst cases of domestic abuse they have ever seen. Police charge the son, Dwight Brown, 46, with abusing his mother and mentally disabled brother in a squalid Newark apartment.

One of the officers who entered the home to find the brother became so sick he needed to be hospital treatment. Officers reported "the stench was incredible, it was enough to knock you out," said detective Rocco Malanga of the Newark police force.

Brown had the stun gun with him when Manhattan police arrested him at the medical center on Saturday. He was charged with weapons possession and assault by New York authorities, Malanga said.

Brown faces two counts of neglect of the elderly or disabled persons in New Jersey, and additional charges were likely, Malanga said.Newark officers went to check the Browns' unit in the 15-story Abington Towers apartments on Mount Prospect Avenue after New York police told them that Brown had his mentally disabled brother was there, Malanga said.

When they got to the ninth-floor apartment, officers Rasheen Peppers and Shaon Johnson knocked on the door. Getting no response, they opened the door and "were immediately contaminated with lice and other flying things," Malanga said.The two officers retreated to their patrol car, and called the city's hazardous-materials unit.