Troy Leonard, 31, of Franklin Lakes, pleaded guilty to sexual assault and health care claims fraud on Tuesday, the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office said.
NEWTON -- A special education consultant who was accused of sexual assault and health care claims fraud last year admitted Tuesday to touching the genitals of eight children and submitting fraudulent insurance claims, authorities said.
Troy Leonard, 31, of Franklin Lakes, pleaded guilty to eight counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of second-degree health care claims fraud, the Sussex County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release. Leonard admitted to having sexual contact against eight children under the age of 13 while he served as their behavioral therapist. Leonard also admitted to billing insurance companies for treatment he didn't provide.
Leonard's case had been referred to a grand jury for review, but he had not been indicted prior to his guilty plea on Tuesday.
Leonard advertised himself online as a life coach, a family counselor and an Applied Behavior Analysis therapist, but records with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board show he's not a credentialed behavior analyst. His license as a marriage and family therapy counselor is currently suspended, according to records with the Division of Consumer Affairs.
According to New Jersey Herald, Leonard submitted $650,000 worth of fraudulent insurance claims between August 2011 and November 2015. The newspaper also reported that the sexual assaults took place in Wantage, West Milford, Ringwood, Lafayette and Verona.
As part of the plea deal, the prosecutor's office agreed to drop child endangerment charges and consolidate 38 counts of health claims fraud into one count, Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Seana Pappas confirmed.
The deal calls for Leonard to serve 10 years in prison -- a five-year concurrent sentence on the sexual assault charges and a five-year consecutive term for the health care claims fraud charge -- and requires he serve 85 percent of his sentence for the sexual assaults before he's eligible for parole, she said.
"While the agreed upon sentence is less then what the defendant would be exposed to if he were found guilty of all counts after a trial, it is an appropriate recommended sentence upon admission of guilt so early in the judicial process," Pappas said.
Pappas said Leonard was not accused of nor did he admit to penetrating the victims and that the prosecutor's office took into account "many factors" in its plea offer, "particularly the fact that the child victims will now not have to testify in any pre-trial hearings or a trial itself."
"This coupled with the defendant's admission of the acts he committed upon the minors and closure of the matter will help the children to heal," she said.
Leonard will be sentenced on July 15 by Judge William J. McGovern.
Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.