Joey Buttafuoco’s criminal record consists of four convictions spanning thirteen years: a 1993 guilty plea to statutory rape of seventeen-year-old Amy Fisher, a 1995 no-contest plea to soliciting prostitution in Hollywood, a 2004 guilty plea to felony insurance fraud in Los Angeles, and a 2006 no-contest plea to illegal possession of ammunition by a felon. The convictions produced roughly two and a half years of jail time in total, five years of probation on the fraud case, a lifetime ban from California’s auto body industry, and a public profile that outlasted every sentence.
The record begins with the case that made his name a tabloid fixture. On May 19, 1992, Amy Fisher shot Buttafuoco’s wife Mary Jo in the head on the front porch of their Massapequa, Long Island home. Fisher, then seventeen, had been having a sexual relationship with Buttafuoco that began when she was sixteen. Fisher was charged with attempted murder, pleaded guilty to reduced assault counts, and served nearly seven years in prison. Buttafuoco was not charged in the shooting itself. He was charged with what the relationship with Fisher had been underneath it.
1993 Statutory Rape Conviction
Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon initially declined to prosecute Buttafuoco on statutory rape, citing concerns about witness credibility. That changed after former employees at Complete Auto Body, Buttafuoco’s shop in Baldwin, New York, told investigators he had bragged about his sexual relationship with the sixteen-year-old Fisher. A grand jury returned a nineteen-count indictment that included statutory rape, sodomy, and endangering the welfare of a child.
On October 5, 1993, Buttafuoco appeared before Nassau County Judge Jack Mackston in Mineola and pleaded guilty to a single count of third-degree rape, admitting to a sexual encounter with Fisher on July 2, 1991.1Los Angeles Times. Buttafuoco Pleads Guilty to Rape The plea bargain capped his sentence at six months in jail, five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine. Accounts of the time actually served differ: NBC News reported four months,2NBC News. Joey Buttafuoco Surrenders for Jail Term while the New York Daily News reported 129 days.3New York Daily News. Mary Jo’s Courtroom Fury
1995 Solicitation of Prostitution
On May 24, 1995, Buttafuoco was arrested on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood after allegedly offering an undercover policewoman $30 for a sex act.4New York Times. Buttafuoco Charged With Soliciting Sex He was booked and released on his own recognizance.
On July 7, 1995, Buttafuoco pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor. Municipal Court Judge Michael Mink placed him on two years’ probation, ordered him to take an HIV test and attend an AIDS education class, and imposed $1,715 in fees and fines.5Spokesman-Review. Joey Buttafuoco Pleads No Contest to Solicitation
2004 Insurance Fraud Conviction
By the early 2000s, Buttafuoco had relocated to the San Fernando Valley and become co-owner of an auto body shop called California Collision in Chatsworth. On December 17, 2003, he was arrested in a multi-agency sting targeting bogus insurance claims. Investigators said he had coached undercover officers on how to stage vehicle damage to justify fraudulent claims for paint jobs and repairs on undamaged cars.6CNN. Buttafuoco Arrested in Insurance Sting
Buttafuoco was initially charged with three counts of insurance fraud and one count of grand theft. A search of his home at the time of the arrest turned up cash, firearms, and various drugs, though authorities could not establish ownership of the substances.7Los Angeles Times. Buttafuoco Sentenced for Fraud He pleaded guilty to one felony count of insurance fraud. On March 22, 2004, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Horwitz sentenced him to one year in county jail and five years of probation, ordered $4,624 in restitution to 21st Century Insurance Co., and banned him for life from working in the auto body business in California.8CBS News. Buttafuoco Jailed for Fraud
2006 Illegal Ammunition Possession
In August 2005, while Buttafuoco was still on probation from the fraud case, Los Angeles County probation officers searched his Chatsworth home and found ammunition. As a convicted felon, he could not legally possess it.
He pleaded no contest. On July 11, 2006, Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen sentenced him to one year in county jail and imposed suspended sentences of three years in state prison on the felony and five years for violating his existing probation.9Daily News of Los Angeles. Joey Buttafuoco Sent to Jail on Ammo Charge He was ordered to report to jail on November 1, 2006.10Orlando Sentinel. Buttafuoco Gets Year in Jail for Possessing Ammunition
What Buttafuoco Was Not Charged With
The 1992 shooting of Mary Jo Buttafuoco is central to how the public remembers the name, but Joey was not criminally charged in connection with it. Amy Fisher pulled the trigger and was prosecuted for the shooting; Peter Guagenti, the twenty-one-year-old Brooklyn man who sold Fisher the gun, pleaded guilty and received six months in jail.11New York Times. Jail for Accomplice in Amy Fisher Case The criminal case against Joey Buttafuoco that grew out of the Fisher relationship was the statutory rape prosecution, not an accessory charge in the shooting.
After the Convictions
Mary Jo Buttafuoco filed for divorce on February 3, 2003, in Ventura County Superior Court after twenty-six years of marriage,12Midland Reporter-Telegram. Joey Buttafuoco Wife Getting Divorce shortly before the fraud arrest. Joey married Evanka Franjko in 2005.13Good Housekeeping. Joey Buttafuoco, Amy Fisher, and Mary Jo Now Mary Jo later wrote that she had come to view her ex-husband as a clinical sociopath, a conclusion she said was prompted by her son Paul in 2007.14ABC News. Mary Jo Buttafuoco Book Speaking in 2007 about Joey’s dinner reunion with Amy Fisher, Mary Jo, by then remarried under the name Connery, attributed it to financial desperation, saying he had “lost everything.”15ABC News. Buttafuoco and Fisher Reunite The California auto body ban imposed in 2004 remains in effect for life.