The Township of Holmdel could recover hundreds of thousands in legal fees billed by disgraced tax appeal lawyer Matt O’Donnell after he and his defunct law firm settled a two-year-old lawsuit last week, the New Jersey Globe has learned.
But Holmdel, who alleged they were overbilled for legal services, never got a chance to depose O’Donnell, the state’s cooperating witness in an itsy-bitsy corruption sting operation that netted just five small fish in charges announced nearly four years ago.
O’Donnell, backed up by embattled Deputy Attorney General John Nicodemo, argued that media attention could pollute the jury pool when trials of former officeholders under indictment begin. The trial judge and a panel of appellate court judges disagreed, keeping the civil lawsuit from being postponed.
Holmdel will also recover expenses and legal fees, which are estimated to be in the six-figure range.
It’s unclear how much of the settlement will be paid for by O’Donnell’s malpractice insurance carrier, If any. Attorneys retained by the carrier were part of O’Donnell’s legal team in the civil case.
O’Donnell pled guilty in 2021 to using straw donors to obtain public contracts for his law firm, O’Donnell McCord.
Since entering into a plea agreement, O’Donnell billed government bodies for tax appeal work – sometimes precluding other firms from obtaining the work – and represented the State of New Jersey in court in his role as a municipal prosecutor.
O’Donnell, attorneys say, billed public entities over $4.5 million while serving as a cooperating witness.
While O’Donnell had initially agreed to a seven-year state prison term, a revised plea agreement he signed on October 25, 2021, appears to have acknowledged more criminal acts beginning about five weeks after he signed his first plea — and eight months after he began cooperating with prosecutors.
Despite that, it appears prosecutors offered O’Donnell a better deal than the one he got three years ago: three years in prison instead of seven.
O’Donnell has agreed to be debarred and to a ten-year ban on any business relationship with the state. He’ll need to pay full restitution to victims and forfeit $600,000 that came from his use of straw donors and illegal cash contributions. O’Donnell has also agreed to pay a $250,000 public corruption profiteering penalty and a lifetime ban on public employment.