PARSIPPANY — Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) confirmed the guilty plea of a former high-ranking Morris County official, who faced charges after accepting bribes to direct public contracts to a law firm.
During an appearance on November 17, before New Jersey Superior Court Judge Peter J. Tober in Somerset County, former Morris County Freeholder John Cesaro, 53, Parsippany, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in official and political matters (3rd degree).
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the State will seek a five-year prison sentence on January 16, 2026. The agreement calls for Cesaro’s forfeiture of $7,700 gained from the scheme, and the payment of an approximately $23,000 public corruption profiteering penalty. The defendant will also be subject to permanent disqualification from public office or employment, and face a five-year debarment from doing business with the State or any of its subdivisions.
“The public’s faith in government is shaken when elected officials trade favors or preferential treatment for illicit payments,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Government service is about serving the public, not about getting unlawful perks.”
“This guilty plea shows that public servants who abuse their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of New Jersey residents will face justice,” said Eric L. Gibson, Executive Director of OPIA.
Cesaro served as a councilman in Parsippany–Troy Hills Township from January 2006 through June 2012. He also served on the Morris County Board of Commissioners (formerly “Freeholder Board”) from 2012 until December 31, 2018.
The indictment alleges Cesaro took thousands of dollars in bribes from a cooperating witness and in return promised to use his influence on the County Freeholder Board, now known as the Board of County Commissioners, to hire or continue to retain the law firm of the cooperating witness, who is a tax attorney, for government legal work.
Under oath at his guilty plea, Cesaro admitted that, between approximately April and May 2018, in Randolph, Mountain Lakes, and Morristown, he agreed to take $7,700 in cash as consideration for agreeing to use his official elected position with the county to provide public contracts or work to the cooperating witness.
The case against Cesaro was prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Michael Grillo and Andrew Wellbrock of the OPIA, with DAG Adam Gerken of the OPIA Corruption Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Director Jeffrey J. Manis and OPIA Executive Director Gibson.
Cesaro was represented by Robert Dunn, Esq., Morristown.
