New Jersey Civil and Criminal Articles

HELD: The opinion offered by the officer does not meet the requirementsneeded to qualify it as a lay opinion and permitting the officer to testifyabout his opinion invaded the fact-finding province of the jury.1. The familiar standards governing expert opinion testimony are found inthree separate rules. See N.J.R.E. 702, 703, 705. An expert is one…

T HIS WEEK THE NJ SUPREME COURT RULED THAT if a law enforcement officer’s notes are lost or destroyed before trial, a defendant, upon request, may be entitled to an adverse inference charge. Defendant, charged with sexual assault, was interviewed by law enforcement officers at which time he acknowledged having sexual relations with the alleged…

In Kentucky v. King the United States Supreme Court held that a warrantless entry based on exigent circumstances is reasonable when the police did not create the exigency by engaging or threatening to engage in conduct violating the Fourth Amendment. During the course of a controlled drug bust, officers in pursuit of a suspected drug…

On May 1, 2011 in State v. Rehmann, the Appellate Division ruled that the supervisor of a state police laboratory technician would be permitted to testify at the defendant’s drunk driving trial, even though the supervisor did not personally test the defendant’s blood sample. The Court reasoned that confrontation clause considerations normally require that all…

State v. Lee, 417 N.J. Super. 219 (App. Div. 2010) The Appellate Division held that where a defendant’s sexual contact is with his own intimate parts in view of an adult victim, conviction on a charge of criminal sexual contact requires proof of physical force or coercion beyond defendant’s act of touching himself. The defendant…

State v. Rodriguez-Alejo, A-0815-09T3, (N.J. Super. App. Div. March 25, 2011) The defendant was convicted of violating N.J.S.A. 39:4-50.2 for refusing to submit to a breath test. On appeal, the defendant argued that his limited English proficiency prevented him from understanding the instructions regarding the breath sample. The Appellate Division overturned the conviction, finding that…

Today in State v McClean, the NJ Supreme Court reversed a drug conviction which had been partially based upon use of the so called “lay opinion rule” where the police officer testified based upon his training and experience as to what constituted intent to distribute. This type of issue is a hot topic in DWI…

This week something very important in DWI law took place when Judge Max Baker overturned a driving under the influence conviction this week. Judge Baker found that only one brand of thermometer probe should be used to determine the reliability of the breath-test machine.The decision, which covers the entire county, could throw out the results…

As a result of an investigation into several robberies and thefts, the defendant was implicated in those crimes. On January 1, 2005, five complaints were prepared against the defendant. Four of them sought authorization to arrest the defendant for various offenses and the fifth complaint charged him with resisting arrest and listed the address of…

Please take notice that as of August 1, 2011, the law regarding driving with a suspended license, N.J.S.A. 2C:40-26, has changed. It will now be a crime of the 4th degree if a person drives with a suspended license if the license was suspended for either a first or second violation of Driving While Intoxicated.…