Joe Giudice, husband of The Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice, has accepted a plea deal in a fraud and forgery case that will give him 18 more months in prison. He was sentenced to 41 months earlier this month on separate charges.
Joe accepted the plea deal yesterday, according to ABC News. He pled guilty to “possession of a fraudulent driver’s license” that he used his brother’s birth certificate to illegally obtain back in 2010 after his license was revoked due to a DUI.
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As a part of the plea deal, Joe will not have to go to trial and will serve the sentence concurrently with his jail time from his other case. He also owes more than $400,000 in restitution for the other case.
Initially, he faced more serious charges of “willfully using the identification of another — a second-degree offense that carried a maximum of 10 years in prison.” According to ABC, he didn’t want to take the plea deal because he didn’t want to admit guilt, but did so only after the judge convinced him to think it over.
Teresa, who was not at his sentencing, is due to surrender to prison in January 2015. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison, and when she is done serving her time, Joe will surrender to serve his. The reason the judge granted them concurrent sentences was so that at least one of them could be there at a time for their four young daughters.
Despite receiving jail time, there is still a chance that Joe could be deported since he is not an American citizen. But according to NJ.com US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will wait until after he serves his time to make that decision.
“This is the best possible result we could have ever gotten in a state court,” Giudice’s attorney, Miles Feinstein, said.
(Image and video courtesy of Bravo)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
