TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that a suspended Morris County sheriff’s
officer pleaded guilty today to demanding
$60,000 from an inmate in the county jail
in return for giving him special treatment.
According to Criminal Justice
Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni, Lee C. Maimone,
43, of Mount Olive, pleaded guilty to second-degree
theft by extortion before Superior Court Judge
John B. Dangler in Morris County. Under the
plea agreement, the state will recommend that
Maimone be sentenced to five years in state
prison. The state required him to forfeit
his job as a sheriff’s officer and be
permanently barred from public employment
in New Jersey.
Judge Dangler scheduled sentencing
for Sept. 25. Deputy Attorney General Mark
Eliades, chief of the Gangs & Organized
Crime Bureau, and Deputy Attorney General
Jeffrey Manis took the plea for the Division
of Criminal Justice.
In pleading guilty, Maimone
admitted that he demanded that an inmate in
the Morris County Jail pay him $60,000 in
return for favorable treatment. Maimone admitted
that he offered to provide favorable testimony
or information about the inmate in disciplinary
matters in the jail if he was paid, but threatened
to withhold such information if he did not
receive the money. Maimone admitted that he
accepted $2,000 as partial payment of the
money from an undercover New Jersey State
Police detective posing as the inmate’s
girlfriend.
Maimone has been suspended
without pay from his job with the Morris County
Sheriff’s Office since Feb. 26, when
he was charged by criminal complaint.
Maimone was charged as a result
of an investigation by the New Jersey State
Police Official Corruption Unit, the Division
of Criminal Justice and the Morris County
Prosecutor’s Office. The Morris County
Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation.
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