DENVILLE — A former Denville teacher pleaded guilty today to molesting an eighth-grade boy in a class closet more than a decade ago, and now faces being sentenced to five years in prison and community supervision for life under Megan’s Law. Patrick DeFranco, 43, was arrested in 2005 after police recorded a telephone call between him and the then-21-year-old...
Patrick Defranco, 38, a Denville middle school teacher appears in Superior Court in Morristown in 2005 accused of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy.
DENVILLE — A former Denville teacher pleaded guilty today to molesting an eighth-grade boy in a class closet more than a decade ago, and now faces being sentenced to five years in prison and community supervision for life under Megan’s Law.
Patrick DeFranco, 43, was arrested in 2005 after police recorded a telephone call between him and the then-21-year-old victim, in which DeFranco allegedly acknowledged having sex with him at the Valleyview Middle School in 1998 when he was 13.
DeFranco previously denied the allegations and was nearing trial. But in pleading guilty today in Superior Court in Morristown to second-degree sexual assault, he admitted having performed a sex act on the boy.
A second-degree crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Under a plea agreement, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez will recommend that DeFranco be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Manahan scheduled sentencing for July 23.
The case has raised novel questions of whether police legally obtained DeFranco’s unlisted cell phone number from the school without a warrant so they could record a conversation between the pair. DeFranco argued he gave his phone number to the school only for emergencies and had an expectation of privacy it would not be given to non-staff members without his knowledge and consent.
A police officer who was the school’s resource officer obtained the phone number from the school’s principal’s office as part of his investigation. Police then used it to have the then-21-year-old victim call DeFranco's cell phone and ask about their alleged encounters in 1998, when the boy had been in eighth grade. The conversation was recorded and became the basis of the criminal charges against DeFranco, who he was hoping to have the conversation barred as evidence.
Such issues were not directly addressed in the state's wiretapping statute and had not previously been taken up in the courts. In November, a judge ruled that the officer did not need a warrant and that DeFranco's cell phone number itself did not carry the same expectation of privacy as other records, such as phone-usage, medical or banking records, or even household garbage.
Under today’s plea agreement, DeFranco reserves his right to appeal the ruling regarding his cell phone number and recorded phone conversation. Should an appellate court reverse that ruling, he then could seek to have today’s guilty plea thrown out.
Two other charges — first-degree aggravated sexual assault and third-degree endangering — are to be dismissed at sentencing under the plea bargain, and DeFranco also would forfeit his teaching license.
Now of Fairport, N.Y., DeFranco was fired from his $49,000-a-year job after being indicted in 2006. He remains free on bail.