Slain tot's dad stabbed

The father of a toddler who was fatally beaten in April in Cape May County was stabbed during an argument there yesterday, police said.

Juan Rivera-Perez, 30, of Wildwood, was stabbed in the back by a man with a knife near a Pentecostal church on Franklin Street in Woodbine about 8 a.m., said Sgt. Steve Jones, New Jersey State Police spokesman.

Rivera-Perez's son, Caden Rivera, 2, died April 22 as a result of blunt-force trauma to the abdomen. Damien Rodriguez, a boyfriend of the toddler's mother, was charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death.

New Jersey's Department of Children and Familieshad received complaints a month before the slaying that Rodriguez had been abusing the boy, the Associated Press reported.

Jones said that it did not appear that the stabbing was related to the boy's death, but authorities have not found the assailant.

Rivera-Perez was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center's trauma unit in Atlantic City, where he was listed in fair condition yesterday afternoon.

Attorney Mati Jarve, who is representing Rivera-Perez in a wrongful-death lawsuit, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

According to the state Department of Corrections, Rivera-Perez has been incarcerated numerous times for drug offenses.

Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call the New Jersey State Police at 609-882-2000.