Crime & Safety

Disbarred Attorney Pleads Guilty to Unlawful Practice

John Montefusco Sr., a former Parsippany Planning Board attorney, pleaded guilty Monday.

A former Parsippany Planning Board attorney pleaded guilty to illegal law practice charges, Monday, according to Acting Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp.

Parsippany attorney John Montefusco Sr., who was disbarred for mail fraud in 2009, pleaded guilty on Monday to the unlawful practice of law, Knapp said.

“In pleading guilty, the defendant admitted to meeting with a client who was facing criminal charges in Sussex County and accepted money as a retainer for legal services between December 2012 and April 24, 2013,” he said.

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Montefusco is scheduled to be sentenced for the third-degree charge on Oct. 4, before Judge Stuart A. Minkowitz.

“Under the terms of this plea agreement to the third-degree charge, the state will recommend that the defendant be sentenced to probation and 180 days in the Morris County Correctional Facility,” Knapp said.

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Montefusco was previously sentenced to one day in prison with two years of a supervised release for taking bribes from a local developer. The sentence issued in Trenton by federal Judge Freda Wolfson also included six months of electronic monitoring and $2,500 in fines and restitution. He was sentenced on June 27.

In early 2008, Montefusco, then attorney for the Parsippany Planning Board, pleaded guilty to accepting $26,000 in bribes. He also pleaded guilty on Feb. 13, 2008 to mail fraud, Knapp said.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he admitted “that he gave his official assistance to a developer in return for benefits to him and his family that included discounted purchase prices on houses that allowed the family members to quickly resell the properties at substantial profit.”

Afterward, he was dismissed from the board and disbarred.


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