September 25, 09

NEWS / Former Morris County Sheriffs Officer Sentenced to Prison for Demanding Money from Inmate for Specia

TRENTON – Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that a former Morris County sheriff’s officer was sentenced to state prison today for demanding $60,000 from an inmate in the county jail in return for giving him special treatment.

Lee C. Maimone, 43, of Mount Olive, was sentenced to five years in state prison by Superior Court Judge John B. Dangler in Morris County, according to Division of Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni.

Maimone pleaded guilty on Aug. 14 to theft by extortion. At the time of the guilty plea, Maimone was ordered to forfeit his job as a sheriff’s officer. He is permanently barred from public employment in New Jersey.

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.

Deputy Attorneys General Mark Eliades, chief of the Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, and Jeffrey Manis represented the Division of Criminal Justice at the sentencing. 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.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases09/pr20090925b.html