A Dedham paving contractor with a long history of ripping off homeowners is headed back to prison, this time for at least five years, after pleading guilty to scamming 11 residents out of more than $15,000. William Pusateri, 59, took cash from victims in Foxborough, Sharon, Dedham, and Westwood while promising to pave driveways or complete other home-improvement work he never finished.
According to Boston 25 News, Pusateri was sentenced to 18 months of probation following his prison term, and a judge ordered him to pay restitution to his victims, with the amount to be determined at a later date. The Norfolk District Attorney's Office said Pusateri specifically targeted senior citizens, many of whom handed over cash deposits before he disappeared without completing the promised work.
Daily Voice identified Priority 1 Paving as one of Pusateri's business names.
A Motel Room Arrest Exposed Statewide Warrants
The Norfolk County case traces back to December 2025, when Sharon Police arrested Pusateri inside a Sharon motel room following an investigation into a $4,000 door-to-door cash scheme targeting an elderly woman. That investigation revealed Pusateri had 11 active arrest warrants out across Massachusetts at the time, per the same Boston 25 News report. Police discovered multiple departments were investigating him for nearly identical driveway scams happening simultaneously in different towns.
A Norfolk County grand jury indicted Pusateri on multiple felony larceny counts in March, leading to his detention on $1 million bail ahead of his guilty plea, according to reporting from NBC10 Boston. That investigation noted this was Pusateri's third grand jury indictment tied to paving scams, underscoring a pattern that has stretched across multiple counties and roughly 15 years.
A Pattern Stretching Back Over a Decade
Pusateri's contracting fraud dates back roughly 15 years, NBC10 Boston reported. In January 2023, he was arraigned in Middlesex Superior Court on 23 felony charges after being accused of stealing more than $78,000 from homeowners, including elderly and disabled residents, between 2020 and 2022, according to Daily Voice.
Court filings from those earlier prosecutions showed Pusateri routinely offered excuses such as a personal crisis, trips to Puerto Rico, bad weather, or truck breakdowns whenever homeowners demanded refunds for work that never got done, Daily Voice reported.
Massachusetts Home-Improvement Contract Rules
Massachusetts law gives homeowners specific protections that Pusateri's conduct appears to have repeatedly ignored. Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 142A, residential home-improvement contractors are barred from requiring advance deposits that exceed one-third of the total contract price for contracts over $1,000, according to Pro Build. The statute also requires written contracts for residential home-improvement work over $1,000.
For now, Pusateri's restitution amount remains undetermined, leaving his 11 known victims in Foxborough, Sharon, Dedham, and Westwood waiting to learn how much, if any, of their money will be returned once he completes his prison term and begins probation.
