Mine Hill man admits harassing comedian Jim Breuer

A pizzeria owner who used to live near comedian Jim Breuer in Chester Township admitted Monday to harassing the entertainer by posting disparaging remarks about him and his family on a YouTube account and later violating a no-contact court order by posting private data about Breuer.

Giuseppe Ionfrida, 47 and now living in Mine Hill, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge James DeMarzo in Morristown to a petty disorderly persons offense of harassment by posting disparaging comments on YouTube about Breuer between Nov. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2013.

Under questioning by defense lawyer Joseph Scura, Ionfrida acknowledged that the disparaging comments he wrote from a home computer in Mine Hill alleged Breuer used drugs and also referenced his juvenile daughters.  Ionfrida did not repeat the comments in court.

"You did so with the purpose to at least annoy Mr. Breuer?" Scura asked.  Ionfrida replied yes.

After he was charged in January 2014, Ionfrida was ordered by Municipal Court Judge Gary Troxell to have no direct or indirect contact with Breuer or his family,

Ionfrida admitted to DeMarzo Monday that he also committed the disorderly persons offense of contempt of a court order by posting additional comments on YouTube in April 2014 about Breuer and released the comedian's personal contact information online.

In exchange for his guilty pleas to the two non-indictable offenses, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Melanie Smith has recommended that Ionfrida be sentenced on Dec. 11 to five years probation, a program of psychological therapy, an anger management program, and forfeiture of any firearms and his firearms purchaser ID card for at least the duration of his probationary sentence.  He will be able to apply to the court to get his weapons back after probation is over.

Ionfrida also signed a separate consent agreement under which he promised to never have any contact in any format with Breuer or his family.

Before the plea agreement, Ionfrida had been charged with stalking, filing a false police report against Breuer, stalking him again after the January 2014 no-contact order, and contempt of court orders. The allegations against him included that he mailed a box of condoms to Breuer's house and posted comments that caused the performer fear and distress.

DeMarzo said he believes the resolution was well-thought out, and Ionfrida said: "I just want to move on."

"The real goal here is to curb this sort of behavior going forward," DeMarzo said.

Scura earlier this year argued for dismissal of the stalking charges, charging that prosecutions based upon online postings, which don't threaten harm but might be considered offensive, would violate free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.  The judge disagreed, finding that the comments went beyond acceptable free speech.

The owner of a pizzeria in Randolph, Ionfrida used to live by the performer in Chester Township with his own family but now is divorced and lives in Mine Hill.  He is allowed to pick up his children in Chester Township but can't have any contact with Breuer or make any gesture of acknowledgment if he sees him, the judge said.

   Breuer is a stand-up comedian and a former cast member of Saturday Night Live who acted in the 1998 cult "stoner comedy" called "Half Baked."  He and Ionfrida used to be friends.

   The friendship between Breuer and Ionfrida soured around 2009 when Breuer was a guest on the now-defunct Opie & Anthony talk radio show, Without referring to Ionfrida by name, Breuer poked fun at him, called him "a bag of rocks," allegedly slurred his Italian ancestry and horns were blown on air to convey the sounds of boats carrying immigrants to America, Scura said at a prior hearing.

The Opie & Anthony segments that featured Breuer's anecdotes about "Pizza Man" were popular and an unknown third-party posted them to YouTube. A few years later, Ionfrida watched them and realized he was the target of Breuer's jokes, Scura said.

When Breuer learned of the first posts, he contacted Chester Township police, who discovered the poster's user name was registered to Ionfrida's pizzeria. Breuer then received a package of condoms in the mail that allegedly were mailed from a location near the pizzeria. Ionfrida then reported to police that Breuer had left him a note that warned Ionfrida "to knock it off" or he would be killed. Police allege the note was written by Ionfrida himself, who misspelled Breuer's name in its content, and charged him with filing a false report.

In exchange for his admissions, the Prosecutor's Office amended two charges to petty disorderly and disorderly persons offenses and will dismiss additional charges at time of sentencing.

   Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.