A Dedham Paving Contractor Who Took More Than $15,000 From 11 Homeowners, Many of Them Seniors, Is Headed to Prison for at Least Five Years
By the time William Pusateri stood before a judge in Dedham Superior Court this fall, his paving work had already landed him in prison more than once. The 59-year-old Dedham contractor pleaded guilty to multiple counts of larceny for taking more than $15,000 from 11 homeowners, many of them senior citizens, and was sentenced to five to six years in state prison.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey announced the sentence on Oct. 1, 2026. “The defendant stole from the victims who trusted him and took advantage of senior citizens,” Morrissey said, according to Dedham Patch.
Eleven homeowners in four Norfolk County towns
Prosecutors said Pusateri took payment from residents of Foxborough, Sharon, Dedham and Westwood for driveway work and other home improvement projects, then either never did the work or left it unfinished. The 11 victims lost more than $15,000 in all.
Police departments in all four towns investigated. According to the district attorney’s office, detectives used search warrants, bank records and surveillance video to build the case. Assistant District Attorney Adam Stewart prosecuted it, and Victim Witness Advocate Caroline Steele worked with the victims through the court process. The case was heard by Judge Michael Doolin, according to a Fall River Reporter account of the district attorney’s announcement.
When Pusateri was arraigned on the indictment in March 2026, NBC10 Boston spoke with two homeowners who described paying him for work he never finished. Richard Ludwig, 81, an Army veteran and retired reserve police officer in Foxborough who has Parkinson’s disease, had agreed to pay an extra $600 to fix problems with a driveway job. Ludwig told the station he never saw Pusateri or the money again. Matt Conlon, a single parent, paid $8,000 for a wheelchair ramp and exterior door and siding work for his 81-year-old mother that was never finished, NBC10 Boston reported. Bail in that case was set at $1 million.
Five to six years, then probation
Under the sentence, Pusateri will serve five to six years in prison. After his release, he will be on probation for 18 months. Restitution to the victims will be set at a later date.
The district attorney’s announcement did not list the exact number of larceny counts. It also did not set a dollar figure for each victim, leaving the restitution amounts for a later hearing.
A record that runs back more than a decade
The Norfolk County case is not Pusateri’s first. NBC10 Boston, which has followed him since 2022 in its “To Catch a Contractor” series, reported after the October sentencing that he served three years for a similar scheme in Worcester County more than a decade ago, and two years after a similar case in Middlesex County that followed the station’s 2022 reporting.
In the Middlesex case, he was sentenced in 2023 to two years in prison and three years of probation, after prosecutors had asked for five to seven years. Earlier in 2026, he was sent back to prison for four to five years for violating probation by taking deposits from more homeowners after his release. A judge also said earlier this year that he had missed restitution payments owed from previous cases, according to the station.
The station reported that his December 2025 arrest followed doorbell camera footage that captured him with more customers.
Protections under Massachusetts contractor law
Massachusetts has specific rules for anyone hired to work on an existing home. Under the state’s home improvement contractor law, Chapter 142A, contractors who bid on or perform work on owner-occupied homes with one to four units must be registered with the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, according to the state’s homeowner resources page.
The same page says contracts for jobs over $1,000 must be in writing, and that a contractor may not collect more than one-third of the contract price in advance unless special-order materials are needed. The registered contractor, not the homeowner, should pull the building permit. Homeowners who pull it themselves may lose eligibility for the state’s Guaranty Fund.
That fund can pay eligible homeowners up to $25,000 of their actual losses when they win in arbitration or court and the contractor does not pay. It is not available to people who hire an unregistered contractor. Registrations can be checked on the state’s MA Contractor Hub or by calling 617-648-2467, the state says.
The homeowner resources page also spells out when state-approved arbitration is available: there must be a written contract meeting a minimum dollar amount, the contractor must have been registered when it was signed, the work must be on a one-to-four family, owner-occupied primary residence in Massachusetts, and the contractor must have pulled the building permit. Every registered contractor must agree to arbitrate. A complaint to the state can lead to an enforcement hearing at which the consumer affairs office can fine a contractor up to $2,000 per violation or suspend or revoke a registration, and a complaint can be filed even against an unregistered contractor.
A guide from the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries, written by Barnstable Law Library head law librarian Mitzi Krueger, notes that a violation of Chapter 142A is automatically a violation of the state’s consumer protection law, Chapter 93A. It also points out that filing a complaint with the consumer affairs office generally does not return money to the homeowner, though it can lead to discipline against the contractor, and that state arbitration awards are generally capped at $10,000.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: “Fresh asphalt on a newly paved driveway along Windybush Way in Ewing Township, New Jersey” by Famartin is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
