Guilty Plea in Jail House Attack on M C Corrections Officers

A Monmouth County jail inmate already serving life without parole, faces an additional 26 years for attacking Corrections Officers at the Freehold Facility. 41-year-old Anthony Montgomery of Neptune pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated assault, terroristic threats and weapons possession counts concerning incidents in 2008 & 2009.

One of the aggravated assault counts was related to a November 7th, 2008 incident where Montgomery attacked a corrections officer during a one-hour recreation period. As the officer passed his cell, Montgomery subdued the officer from behind and repeatedly punched him. The officer was eventually freed by two other officers but sustained serious injuries.

In August of 2009, Montgomery charged several officers with a "shank" who came to his cell to repair a broken light fixture. When the officers entered the cell to handcuff and remove Montgomery, he cut them with the hand-made shank and threatened to break the neck of another officer.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office will recommend that Montgomery a receive consecutive 10 years on the first aggravated assault that occured in 2008, subject to the No Early Release Act. They will also recommend 10 year concurrent sentences on the three aggravated assaults that occurred in 2009 and 18 months on the weapons charge. The plea agreement calls for the 26 1/2 year sentence to run concurrent to the sentence he's currently serving - life without parole.