Morris man was wrongfully charged by Bergen County officials, lawsuit claims

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and several prosecutors and Special Victims Unit detectives are being sued by a Morris County man who says he was wrongfully charged and maliciously prosecuted.

Joseph DiFalco of Kinnelon filed a lawsuit in Superior Court on June 30 after he was found not guilty of sexual assault and debauching the morals of the minor victim. Liz Rebein, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, said the office does not comment on pending litigation.

DiFalco was arrested in 2017 in the alleged sexual assault by Norwood police and the Prosecutor's Office. An attorney for DiFalco did not comment on the suit.

According to the suit, DiFalco was at a party with a number of family members, including the minor who accused him of the assault, around the end of January 2017. At the time, he was taking medication that caused "confusion of the mind," the lawsuit says.

Eleven months after the party, DiFalco said, the girl's parents contacted Norwood police with allegations that he sexually touched her, and in the following days he was interviewed by a detective with the Special Victims Unit.

Business news Corrado's Market permanently closes at Wayne shopping center

Less than a week after the interview with the Prosecutor's Office, DiFalco was arrested and held in the Bergen County Jail, where he said he was on suicide watch and "forced to sleep on a concrete floor without bedding" and missed preparing for Christmas and his wife's birthday, the suit says.

DiFalco was indicted by a grand jury and said the Special Victims Unit detective inaccurately testified to his age as in his 40s when he was in his late 60s.

The suit claims that during discovery between August and October 2018, there was information and statements that "didn't corroborate" the girl's statement against him but rather absolved him. Additionally, the information given by the girl about what dress she was wearing at the party was inaccurate, the lawsuit says.

In June 2019, the court denied a motion to allow statements the girl made to her parents as "fresh complaint evidence," a decision that was appealed, with the statements eventually ruled inadmissible in 2020 because the girl's parents started the conversation. The suit says it was coercive and that they asked her "targeted questions" about details of the alleged incident.

Plane crash A fiery plane crash in a South Carolina resort town kills 5 from New Jersey

DiFalco was found not guilty in August 2022, and he said he believes that the prosecution was "overly and wrongfully driven, unfounded, unsupported, malicious and lacked evidence, corroboration and probable cause."

The suit says DiFalco suffered "severe humiliation," a loss of business income and reputation and "psychological injury" and incurred attorney fees.

He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Kinnelon man claims 'malicious' prosecution by Bergen County